


Transcendancy

by Gabriels_Mourning



Category: The Darkness (Comics), Vampires (1998)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Character Turned Into Vampire, Gen, Hybrids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 17:26:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 33,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6866161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabriels_Mourning/pseuds/Gabriels_Mourning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vampires, and werewolves, oh my...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The woman known to the few who were aware of her as Beth looked around at the paintings covering every inch of her small, dark castle. Lady Elisabeth Della Nostrum, or Beth as her modern name had become, quietly smiled to herself as she eyed the colourful pictures. Not photos, at least that part of the legends was true. Beth was always amused at some of her younger brethren, the few males she bedded at will.   
  
Young vampires still maintained the human warmth that so attracted their vampiric assailants. For almost a thousand years, Beth had watched the ebb and flow of humanity, and only in the last five had she slowly come to the realization that vampirism in most people was rather boring.  
  
There were of course exceptions. There were only three drives once vampirism descended onto a soul. The drive to kill, the drive to feed, and the drive to fuck. Beth had long since moved past the urges that drove most to kill simply for the sake of killing, and had instead delved deeply into the realm of death as an art form. The calculated chaos of death, the anarchy of human destruction.  
  
Beth allowed her fangs to slide forwards in anticipation as she moved from the countless portraits towards the cages in the lower levels, passing the remains of her last lover; Barabas. A vain and foolish brute whose only redeeming attribute now hung limp against his thigh. The sun was coming over the horizon, and its hated light began to sear his flesh. He woke with a start and struggled, but Beth laughed and slid the windows shut.   
  
At least humans were good for their little inventive streaks, she mused as she watched the ash burn itself away to dust. UV proof glass now shielded her where thick wooden shutters and heavy drapes had once hung. The world lit by sunlight was still something of a novelty to Beth, and she looked at it in wonder from time to time.  
  
Now though, she had pressing business. The brute had brought with him the one thing that he rewarded him with her affections, false though they might have been. At last, a werewolf. Despite their legendary destinic entwinement, most vampires had never seen a werewolf, and had only ever read of them, or heard fables. The beasts were much more intriguing than vampires.  
  
In truth, vampires were not that difficult to kill, if one knew what it was one was up against. Decapitation; although this was more difficult in a world now ruled by bullets and nukes as opposed to the sword and axe, should it occur, it still worked. Sunlight, of course, and the occasional UV light, if a vampire was foolish enough to frequent the raves and night clubs that now used them as attractions. Running water was a farce, as most vampires could either cross the stream by a leap or a glide. Silver and wild roses were another fatal component, although modern usage differed somewhat.  
  
In this day and age, silver wasn't used as extensively, and steel made for a much easier strike. Man's touch was everywhere in the earth, now, so wild roses were rarer still. Holy water would burn as any water would burn if hot enough, and only killed if the vampire believed in Christ before his or her death. But a werewolf? Ah, now there was a far more intriguing story, Beth thought as she slid back the bolt to the animal's cage, and stared at it through the bars.  
  
Werewolves, like vampires, could not be photographed, at least not digitally. A small smile came to Beth's face. She wondered at that, but shrugged it off. Digital photography had blown through the vampiric underground like a brushfire, and suddenly everyone's photograph was on the internet or home computer, or if you were a foolish brute like Barabas, on your shirt.. Wild roses were deadlier to werewolves than vampires, and the only aversion to running water was how cold it always was. Silver only killed a werewolf through a bullet or a knife or dagger; swords didn't work, for some reason.   
  
Beth was always frustrated by the inconsistency of the supernatural existence. Wild roses, not grown, and daggers or knives, not swords. A sword could not kill a vampire or werewolf with a stab, but they could be beheaded by anything, right down to the indignity of a shovel across the throat.   
  
The bright blue eyes of the incredibly masculine creature staring at her through the bars drove a shiver up Beth's spine. She stepped up to the cage, and the creature rose from his crouch and stood tall. Beth hissed at him, but he didn't flinch, merely eyed her warily. The creature had spirit. Beth slowly transformed, her skin fading to white, translucent silk, and her raven ringlets falling to her waist. Her nails hardened and lengthened slightly, and her bust grew, even as her lips darkened to match her hair, and her eyes began to pulse in a vibrant red.   
  
The wolf growled low in his throat and his fists clenched. Beth slipped her long, thin tongue around her fangs, and rubbed their glistening whiteness suggestively. The wolf cocked his head to the side and whined, clearly confused.  
  
"I need a consort, my Lord Wolf. I grow bored with the frivolousness of my blood sucking kin." The werewolf lolled his tongue out of his mouth and the thick fur surrounding his groin moved as though pushed from behind. There was interest there.  
  
"I'm a beast, not a lord. And I don't want you, I just want out of here. We don't make good pets." His tone was indeed bestial, and primal. Beth felt her icy blood begin to push through her body as her lust powered her senses.   
  
"I can see the cock as clear as day, beast. You want me, if only to take me and rut with me like the animal you are. But I shall play your game, then. Be my consort, and you'll have your freedom, of sorts. And the best you're ever likely to have."   
  
The wolf growled low again, and the movement of his furred groin brought a distant heat to Beth's own loins. "I don't bow to anyone. I don't play a house pet, lady." Beth slashed open the cage door with one clawed hand.   
  
"And I'm no lady, nor do I want a pet. I'm interested in your rutting nature, pure and simple." Beth slid back the bolt fully, and the door silently opened. The wolf stepped out of the cage and stood tall, rising to a good nine feet tall, towering over Beth's six foot frame. Even in her true vampiric state, Beth kept her human height. The wolf leant forwards and sniffed her almost delicately. A thin line of his saliva began to peel down from his jaw line, and Beth felt a moment of power rush through her at the effect she had on the creature.  
  
The wolf lifted up one of his huge, clawed hands and tilted Beth's throat up. The vampire thrust her chest out as she leant back, and her hands slid to rest on his ribs. She could feel his coldness, like hers, but his heart beat was strong and sure, whereas hers was silent as a windless night. His entire being thrummed with it, and it was something the vampire had not been so close to in quite a while other than to feed.  
  
Beth opened her maw wide, inviting the wolf's kiss, but the creature growled low, and picked her up bodily. She felt a rock hardness against her knee, and her blood red eyes widened as she realized his cock was as hard as steel. The wolf nudged it against her, and Beth pushed against him.  
  
They stumbled into the adjoining room, with the long bear skin by the fire. The wolf knelt down with Beth still in his arms, and the vampire bit his shoulder hard, but the beast barely flinched as the three inch teeth slid into his muscle. The vampire spread her legs, and the wolf lay atop her body, his huge hands sliding up to dig his claws into the pale flesh of her breasts.  
  
Beth hissed in pleasure as the wolf raked at her nipples, the small buds hardening in response to the sensations racing through her undead flesh. There was a sudden wet heat as the wolf licked at her, and tasted her. His teeth slid forwards, shark-like as he punctured her thigh and gently tasted the blood that seeped through.   
  
His tongue was incredibly long, and slid inside of her; rough, coarse and delightful. Beth bucked her hips against his lapping tongue as he continued to drink from her body, and she felt the beginnings of a massive orgasm. The wolf's blue eyes regarded her amusedly, and his rough tongue bent to surround her clit, and Beth screamed in ecstasy as the skin ran over it like fine sandpaper, driving sensations through her like ocean waves.  
  
The wolf stopped, his human eyes watching her frustration as his tongue slid back into his mouth. Beth lurched forwards and slashed in sudden cold fury, and his snout bled. The werewolf snarled and gripped her thighs, immobilizing them. He rose from his laying position, and Beth watched in stunned fascination as his cock pushed out from the hair surrounding his groin.  
  
It was the same soft dark brown fur as the rest of him, and as she watched, inch by inch, it slid out of his groin. Her breath began to hasten unnecessarily as she watched his twelve inches of cock slide out. There was a hood of coarse, short hair around the underside of it, which tapered off as more and more of his length was revealed. Beth reached forwards with an almost reverent slowness, and cupped the huge head in her trembling hands.  
  
The wolf watched her as she began to massage it in her palms, and lightly scrape her razor sharp fingernails over his head. Small slits of split skin appeared, only to heal before her eyes. The wolf was drooling in need down, his eyes alight with the intense sensations the vampire was evoking in him.  
  
The coarse fur slipped back further to reveal the pink tip of the wolf's massive cock. Beth leant back to be pleasured, but the wolf grabbed her around the hips and flipped her easily. The vampire had but a second to prepare herself before the wolf's head lowered, his tongue lolling out to lap at her oozing holes. As his tongue wormed into her tight, pink ass, Beth began to move her hips sinuously, her moans filling the room.   
  
The wolf twisted his tongue deep inside of her, and then pulled out. Beth looked back in time to see the bestial cock move towards her hole, then her entire world became centred on the massive head trying to push through her asshole. She felt the wolf's clawed hands seize her fleshy cheeks, and pierce the cold, silken skin. White hot pain lanced into her hips, and she screamed.   
  
As her cry echoed around them, her ass pushed out, and the wolf slid the first part of himself inside her tightly grasping hole. Beth's eyes widened, and the wolf pushed against her resistance. The vampire winced and cried out, until her breath left her. She gasped in pain as he began to drive himself into her, aching inch by aching inch.   
  
Her white skin began to mottle as her self control shattered when the wolf's rock hard hips and muscular thighs pressed against her tingling moistness. Wood splintered under her frantic grip as the wolf began to pull out of her, and her high pitched moans turned to undignified squeaks as the wolf drove himself deeply into her again.   
  
The werewolf was breathing steadily, and Beth began to pant in time with him, and something else began to consume her. The wolf's cold heartbeat was thrumming through his body like a counterpoint to his thrusts, and with each strong beat, the echo of his pulse raced through the vampire like a welcome rush. Beth tried to reach underneath her to pleasure herself, but the wolf quickened his pace to a fearsome rate.  
  
Beth cried out as the wolf ripped his paws out of her flesh, and bit her lip as the skin healed even as the wolf continued to piston in and out of her. The wolf's breath was hoarse in his throat now, and he kept up his pace for what seemed like days, but was in truth only a half hour at most. The supernatural strength flowed from the creature, and Beth lay there accepting the beast's dominance for the moment.   
  
Eventually, his claws raked at her skin again, and she roused herself from her sensual hell. Her supernaturally heightened senses swam around her, making her feel every inch of skin sliding inside her. The wolf leant forwards and slid his hands around her throat. She looked back at him and arched her back, feeling his thick length swelling more inside of her.   
  
There was a moment of silence as the wolf gathered his breath, then howled as he gushed deeply inside of her. The vampire moaned as she felt the glacially cold semen spread deep inside her. The wolf continued thrusting for a few seconds, and Beth squeezed his cock deep inside of her, milking him. The wolf sagged back, his soft fur glistening with the sweat his body still produced needlessly.   
  
Beth pushed off of the wolf, who was staring at her as his chest heaved. The vampire rolled over onto her back and slid forwards, feeling the wolf's cum beginning to move back down her passage. Her pale hands reached out and grasped the still thick cock hanging proudly between the wolf's legs. The massive chest was moving back and forwards easily, and Beth licked her lips.  
  
"Lay down, wolf. I'm going to have my own pleasure now." The wolf growled, and Beth lashed out a foot, snagging the tendon and causing the wolf to topple backwards. She straddled him in an instant, his meat pressing up against her belly. Beth trailed her claws down the veirny head, and the wolf whined. Her forked tongue slid up and down her sensitive fangs as he hardened beneath her ministrations.  
  
She leant forwards, her canine's dragging along the mushroom like head of his animal cock, drawing bright lines of blood. She was surprised to see the muscle thicken and grow in her hands, even as the sliced head healed under the cool texture of her flicking tongue. The soft, downy fur on the wolf's stomach heaved as she sucked him into her mouth.  
  
She wrapped her tongue around the head of his cock for a moment, then slid it back off, and kneeled up to straddle his erection. She locked eyes as she slowly pushed him inside of her. His icy blue eyes were heavy lidded with lust, and Beth knew he wanted her again. She slid down his length, her hips coming to rest against his.  
  
The wolf eased back against the stone floor, and began to push upwards, driving his hips and cock up off the floor and higher and deeper up inside of Beth. Her mouth opened soundlessly as he moved within her, the intense pleasure almost too much for her. He completely filled her, and the sensations of his driving hips raced up her spine like the heartbeat steadily drumming inside his chest.  
  
She looked down at him as she rode the rolling crest of his hips. The icy blue eyes watched her, feeling her squeeze tightly around him, and moving inside of her. Her claws spread across the rock hard shape of his abdominals as she rocked back and forth on top of him, shifting him inside her even further.   
  
Her open mouth began to move in time to the wolf's heartbeat, loosing pleasured sighs. Beth closed her eyes as the huge beast reached up to mold her sinuously rolling breasts to his palms. She could feel his earlier cream beginning to slide out of her ass, and her eyes opened wide as she felt it slide down to coat the cock that was thrusting in and out of her like a gift from the dark Father himself.  
  
The wolf eyed her as her hands lifted to move through her raven curls, and felt his cock beginning to swell inside of her again. His breath quickened, and Beth's eyes lit like wildfire. She held out her arms widely as she began to bounce more forcefully down onto the rock buried deeply inside her. Her cries became louder and louder, and Beth screamed loudly.  
  
Her orgasm heightened as the wolf's cock shifted within her, and vaguely she realized that the soft fur beneath her was moving too. Her eyes opened as the wave of her orgasm crested, and she looked straight into the ravenous gaze of the wolf, his dark mouth open so wide, so very wide. She felt the flesh of her throat tear open, and in the sudden warmness of her blood, she felt a icy fluid spread inside her as the wolf climaxed again.   
  
Beth tried to take a rise, but her limbs refused to listen. As the wolf drank from her torn throat, she held his suddenly warm jowls in her hands even as she shifted back to human form. She blinked as her heart lurched in her chest, beating for the first time in over half a century. Beth felt her lungs expand and take in the sweet draw of air as the forgotten sensation of warmth spread through her body. She looked at the wolf in surprise.   
  
His glacial eyes stared at her even as her wound gaped around his suckling tongue and jaws. He leant back and swallowed, then slid his teeth across his wrist. "One of your kind knows of how sweet your own blood tastes. When you're drained, as you nearly are, you'll become the thing you feed on, the ultimate irony. You're dying, vampire, reverting to what you once were. Drink one more time, and you can began a new life, a stronger life."   
  
She stared at him as she felt her blood flowing down her chest, her haughty expression still very much in place. He held his dripping wrist over her mouth, and Beth reached up to take it down her throat. They locked gazes, but the light began to fade from the now human Beth's eyes.  
  
The wolf stood and let the rapidly cooling corpse drop to the ground. His thermal vision watched as the last whispers of heat fled the former vampire's body. The wolf felt his body beginning to shrink, and convulse. The change came to him with little pain these days, and his body literally flowed back to his human state. He looked about him, but couldn't see any clothes.   
  
Naked, he stepped forwards towards the desk, littered with papers but with a large brown leather diary holding pride of place. Idly, he flicked through the pages, coming to the final entry. He picked up a pen lying on the rim of the desk.  
  
"Lo, though I may walk through the Valley in the Shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art as nothing compared to me, Lord. Let thy spirit whither and die, Lord, for nothing shall deter the beast within. Your servant no longer, Marcus Stormbridge."  
  
He threw the diary down on the desk with little care, scattering pens and looked out at the tinted windows. He held out his hand and a massive surge of power struck the glass, shattering it. The sun poured through, filling the castle with its warmth and scent for the first time in centuries. A gentle breeze caressed Marcus's chin.  
  
He put a foot on the window sill and looked about, but saw no one. He looked back at the limp form of his lover, and at the slowly closing wound of her throat. Marcus's gaze shifted over to look fully into the face of the sun. Far below, the church bells began to toll for the faithful to rise and gather. A slow smile broke into a bellowing laugh as Beth opened her eyes.


	2. Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story really brings in the rest of the characters.  
> Things begin to come to a head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These characters aren't mine, well, Gabriel is, but he's about the only one. Okay, just some considerations. I'd stalled on something to follow up with Transcendency, and I'm a bit fan of a lot of the Image Comics stuff. So if you've seen John Carpenter's Vampires and are familiar with Image Comics lines The Darkness, Tomb Raider, Witchblade and the Magdelena character's one shots, you'll enjoy this a lot more. I'm hoping though, that you don't need them to enjoy it. So I borrowed (stole) but plagiarism is the truest form of literary compliments, apparently, so there you go. The Magdelena is the property of Image and Top Cow. Jack Crowe and Adam Guiteau are characters out of James Carpenter's Vampires, and as such, they're not mine. They're just the perfect characters for this story. Oh, and I guess credit has to go to Len Wiseman, Kevin Greateaux and Danny (sorry mate, can't remember your name!) for the whole werewolf-vampire hybrid concept which is of course from Underworld and Underworld Evolution, though mine's a bit different than theirs. Anyway, enjoy, and please let me know what you think, because the final part is very close to being finished.

It was absurd. They were the only two people in the entire forest. It was never going to work. He didn't even know where in the hell he was. He looked at the incredible woman standing stoically underneath an overhanging branch. She wore a monk's robe, split up the middle to act as a cloak around her amazonian form.  
  
She wore gold and steel around her, but very little else. Deep red and black clothing, lined in gold, hugged her breasts, loins and limbs. Her shoulders were invitingly bare, as were her toned upper thighs and the slim, muscled midriff. She was incredible in a dozen, a hundred different ways. She wore detailed, ornate armour on her wrists, and shins, shining golden clasps showing crucifixes and other church insignia. Her sultry beauty outweighed her cloistered, religious appearance.   
  
This one did not invite flirtation, however. Her eyes were a deep, vivid brown, but they were as hard and as cold as steel. A killer's eyes. She didn't watch him making the sword as much as she inspected and evaluated him.  
  
Gabriel wasn't really used to it, and for the first time realised what it must feel like to an attractive woman walking into a room of hungry men. He wiped the sweat of his forehead, and she nodded towards the small pool welling up between a small mound of rocks off to the left. He left the cherry red hunk of metal and quickly dunked his head into the cold waters.  
  
A shiver ran down his spine as the mountain waters chilled him, and he turned back, flicking his hair out of his eyes. She sat watching the metal and the anvil, and Gabriel sighed and moved back to the anvil and picked up the hammer. His bare chest felt tight, and he took a breath of cool air before slamming the hammer down onto the metal again.  
  
Sparks flew up and he glanced aside to the other items she had given him. Another block of metal, a bottle of oil that was deep red, almost looking like wine, and a thin sliver of wood, a shaving of a plank. He looked up at her again and shook his head. She was incredibly beautiful, a stupefying beauty. For a moment he wondered if that was why she kept herself cloaked in the hooded robe.  
  
She hadn't answered any of his questions. Three days ago, he'd been another kid on the streets, fresh out of an orphanage and put out into the world, regardless of his readiness. She had come for him then. She had walked up the street where he was looking for work and had stood in front of him.   
  
And he knew.  
  
She had turned and left, looking over her shoulder when he hadn't immediately followed. "Come." Her voice was soft, but as unwavering a tone could never be uttered. "You are needed." And he had gone. There had been no decision. He knew he would follow, and she had not bothered to ask or acknowledge. There was something strange about her, a connection between them that he couldn't put his finger on.  
  
She pulled a bible out of her robe and began to read silently as Gabriel continued to pound the metal out flat. He reached over and flipped the page of the manuscript she had given him. It contained instructions in a language that he couldn't read, but could somehow understand. It was all too strange. He chanced another glance at her.  
  
She really was incredibly beautiful. It wasn't a girl-next-door beauty, or the sultry availability of a vixen, or even the controlled aphrodisiac of a dominant corporate woman. She was ethereally beautiful, a beauty that not only caught the eye, but disturbed the soul. She was almost inhumanly perfect.  
  
"You have questions." She startled him and the tongs holding the metal slipped as he slammed the hammer down again. She closed the book and crossed her legs beneath her, covering her coiled body in the smooth black folds of her robe. "You may ask."  
  
Gabriel kept pounding the metal for a moment before he asked, gathering his thoughts. "Who are you?" She didn't move for several heartbeats, and Gabriel began to figure that this conversation was very, very important.  
  
"Who am I?" she echoed in a far away voice. Her head tilted to the side, and a curl of her lustrous chocolate hair fell down to caress her cheek. "Do you mean what I am, or what I am called?" Gabriel fell into the monotony of forging, slamming the hammer down with regularity, feeling his body remember what his mind never knew.  
  
"Your name, first. Then... what you are. I'm Gabriel." A small smile crossed her thick, red lips. Gabriel felt his heart pounding in his chest as he stared. "But then, you knew that probably before I did, didn't you?" Her head tilted up, and deep within the shadows of the hood, her eyes reassessed and considered.  
  
"My name is Mariella. What I am is the Magdelana." He took that in as he kept hammering, turning the flat piece of metal under his hammer and beginning to shape it. He watched his hands as they confidently moved along the hammer's handle and flipped the metal for each hit, as though it was so ingrained into his system that he could do it in his sleep.  
  
"One at a time, right?" She nodded, her eyes watching him. He kept his cool, despite his fears as his body acted out something he never could have thought of. He was a street-wise hustler and fighter, not a blacksmith. He didn't know where a blacksmith might even be these days. He always thought that they were welders. "What... am I, then?"  
  
Her eyes widened slightly and then her mouth parted in a smile. Gabriel swallowed nervously as he tried to concentrate, against the image of her lips and the incredibly beauty of her. "You are impressive. Your soul remembers much. You are the Gharreck." He stopped pounding the metal to stare at it, the bright red of the glowing metal shaping in moments what surely was supposed to take hours.  
  
Mariella held up her gloved hand. "The Gharreck is "Sword of God" in the Old Script, that language you are reading without knowledge. You are a nephalym... you were born from an earthly mother, but a heavenly father. An angel." Gabriel threw the hammer to the ground and stepped back away from the makeshift forge.  
  
"You're forgetting your meds. I don't believe in angels." Mariella scoffed as she stood up.   
  
"The Ghadhim do not rely on your belief to exist. Upon your conception, your father's soul passed on to you, gifting you with knowledge and power. His time was over, but his purpose was not. Lord Gabriel needed an heir to his throne." Gabriel put his hands up into his still damp hair and stared at her.  
  
"Why do I believe you?" Mariella strode over to the small pool and stared up at the sky above it, the darkness surrounded by glittering stars of brightness. "Is this a trick? Why the hell do I believe anything you say to me? What are you doing to me?"  
  
  
"Truth is a feeling, not a spoken word. You are the son of the Archangel Gabriel. Your soul remembers this; therefore you act as he acted. You craft your own sword this night, in preparation for what he knew you must do. The destiny of man relies upon you now. You will be fit for the task. If you are not, then it will not matter what destiny man's becomes." Gabriel stood up and moved over to her. He stared at her for a while until she turned to him.  
  
"What's going on? I mean... why are you here?" She looked at his face for a long time, staring at him before she slowly pushed her hood off her head. Her hair fell free and cascaded down her face as she turned her features to the heavens. Gabriel felt his heart speeding up and thumping in his chest as he tried to look away, but her beauty was too much.  
  
"Creatures... of this world are many and varied. Trouble arises on this world when creatures from other planes come and mix bloods. Abominations arise which the Creator cannot destroy, held in only by His own will. If He decided to destroy them, then He fears His wrath for the evils of mankind would bring about Armageddon. Werewolves, vampires, all the ghouls and goblins of terrified peasants brought out of the Dark Ages...?"  
  
Gabriel waited as she trailed off, staring out into the night. She turned and gave him a soft smile, such a contradiction with the steel of her eyes, and gestured back at the anvil. Gabriel moved back to it and took up the hammer again, before he knew what he was doing. He pushed the metal back into the fire and watched it heating up.  
  
"They're all real. And now suddenly, they've found a cause. For the longest time, the darkness of these creatures was offset by the light of humanity. They had their weaknesses, and they were able to be destroyed, after a fashion. Now..." She shuddered and pulled her robe around her closer as Gabriel began to smite the metal yet again. "Humanity has lost their light."  
  
"Two creatures, wolves now, but born of vampires, have discovered the compounded strength present in those changed from Hominus Nocturna to Hominus Lupis. For millennia, the dark creatures battled each other, existed apart, or simply abstained from one another. Now, the wolves and the bloods battle together against a growing threat."  
  
Mariella pulled the hood of her robe up over her head again, and sighed as she was enfolded in its dark warmth. "A new creature hierarchy is building. Man, calm momentarily in his boundless ignorance, has no idea of the war that rages. The battle between werewolves and vampires has turned from forgotten peace to a battle for survival. The new creatures are much stronger."  
  
"For centuries, the daughters and sisters of the Magdelena have fought and killed for God. He has given us gifts of power and knowledge for this battle. And now, he has brought us you." Gabriel pulled up the other piece of metal and slid it into the fire. The flames, almost as if knowing they had to be hotter, changed to a deep blue, with flickering white lights deep within. The heat was intense, and Gabriel again wiped the sweat from his brow.   
  
"So I'm making a sword to kill vampires and werewolves. Because I am the son of the Archangel Gabriel. And I can't believe I'm saying this. But I believe you. So why you? Why are you in this?" Mariella brought a small loaf of bread before her and broke it, crossing herself silently and tossing him a piece. She shrugged in the deep black of the hood, which hid her eyes and features.   
  
"Destiny holds us all to her bosom, until her needs for us become apparent. My maternal grandmother many generations removed, fought for Christ himself against these creatures. Legend has it that Sarah was the Christ's own daughter, but I do not believe that. I believe that Christ himself saved my ancestor's soul, and she repaid him with a lifetime of service, killing in his name when his Heavenly father could not."  
  
"The Sisters of the Order of the Magdelena have been walking this earth since then, the bloodied hand of righteous anger, slaying the kin of the Deceiver and laying out our lives against the enemies of our Lord God. There are things in the world that defy explanation, that transcend everyday wickedness and commonplace weakness of spirit. Things that are truly evil. And I and my sisters are the last, though not the only, line of defence against their wickedness."  
  
Gabriel picked up the wood and the bottle of oil, and uncorked it. He ran his fingers over the dried wood, running over dark stains he could see in the light of the forge. "And this sword?" Mariella turned back to him and stepped slowly up to his side. Her fragrance washed over him, and Gabriel again felt his heart pounding in his chest.  
  
"The steel will hold the blade, give it body and shape. The silver you now melt will part the spirits of the wolves from the carcasses your cleave. The oil is rose oil, squeezed from the last bush of wild roses I have found. Wild roses are poisonous to both werewolves and vampires, as nothing else, not even garlic, can be. The wood..." She ran her fingers along the ancient fibres, and lifted her deep eyes to Gabriel's.  
  
"The wood is stained with Christ's own blood, being from the crucifix which took him to his resurrection. The dried skins in the barrel of holy water are from the donkey that carried Christ through Jerusalem. You make a weapon as holy as can be made in this day, by a man with little faith."  
  
Gabriel scoffed as he slid the sheath of wood between the two pieces of metal and tried to keep his countenance when the wood didn't burn in the red-hot metal. He glanced back at Mariella, who watched him calmly. He poured the rose oil onto the metal, which didn't smoke or buckle, nor did the oil boil and simmer.   
  
"What is this place?" Mariella gestured around to the small grove.   
  
"We are outside of time, in the resting place. Here, lost souls wait to be collected by the Ghadhim. The magic and majesty of Christ himself is in this place. Things occur here which cannot occur in the world ruled by reason and science." She pulled a small dagger, a simple assassin's weapon, out of a sheath lying against her thigh, and began to shine and polish it.  
  
"This dagger was my mother's. It killed the beast which took her life. Or so Cardinal Innocent spoke to me." She glanced up at Gabriel, who picked up an ornate handle, ready to combine the sword into one single piece of death. He didn't look at her, but she knew he had listened heartily at her moment of vulnerability.   
  
"We have to train. I have answered your queries. Make the sword. We train." Gabriel plunged the joined sword, white-hot now, into the barrel. The animal skin steamed and hissed as the water boiled, and suddenly the barrel exploded into pieces. The skins were charred and smoked among the wreckage of the barrel.  
  
Gabriel grimaced as he pulled a long slither of wood out of his thigh and sat up. Mariella watched him as he rubbed his leg, glaring at her, then stared in astonishment at his leg, which began to heal and close over the wound, leaving a small scar. She stood and picked up a pack, throwing it to him. A ringing sound came from within, and it was heavy as he caught it.  
  
Gabriel picked up the sword and marvelled at it. The silver was worked through the blade in a twisting vine, with dark rubies spaced along it intermittently, shaped like roses. He set down the pack as Mariella watched him, and swung the sword through the air. It was slightly curved, tapering to a tip with a razor sharp edge. He didn't even want to touch the edge, but ran his thumb across it in helpless awe, feeling the hairline sharpness.   
  
Mariella picked up another pack and handed it to him, unveiling a scabbard with an adjustable strap, for his hip or his back. Gabriel sheathed his sword reverently, and lifted it over his back and over his shoulder. The sword felt at home, and he turned back to the robed warrior woman as the rose scent from the rubies wafted on the slight breeze around them. "Ok. I'm a believer. Where do we start? Who are we after?"  
  
********  
  
Katrina ran through the bright lights of the street, hearing the thudding footsteps following her relentlessly. She glanced behind her, feeling fear give her body strength. She darted around a corner and crouched down into the shadows, staring in terror at the shadow looming on the wall. She watched and waited, silently hoping for a chance from whatever darkness had spawned her.  
  
Her skin was cold, but that was not from the freezing air of the night. Her pale hazel eyes flickered to red and she began to grow her claws out. There was a rough breath and a laugh, and she could hear his heart beating loudly, defiantly.  
  
"Come out, come out, wherever you are..." His tone was low and mocking, as though he knew where she was. She turned, still keeping to the shadows, and began to pull herself up the side of the building, her claws digging into the mortar. "Katrina, honey... you're playing hard to get... tag with a werewolf is never a good idea..."  
  
She shuddered at his tone and risked a peak around the corner. She was thirty feet in the air, and he was leaning calmly against the wall, directly around the corner from where she had hidden. He couldn't have been more than a foot from her when she started climbing. She pulled herself over the edge of the roof and turned around. Surely he had heard her climb? She eased herself over the side, to watch. He strode calmly into the alley and stood there, arms crossed, as though waiting.  
  
Katrina frowned and looked up, but there was plenty of time until daylight, barely a third of the night had passed. She heard a whisper behind her and whirled, but gave a shriek as a clawed hand slashed down across her face. The vampire stumbled back, trying to change as she fell back into the alley.  
  
She landed with a crash into the side of a dumpster, feeling the agony of her face burning in pain. Katrina could feel her bones resetting, healing from the dumpster's sudden stop, but her face wasn't healing. She brought a hand up to her face and shrieked again at it came away, covered in her freshly taken blood.  
  
A low laugh echoed down the alleyway, and Katrina looked up, sighting the towering figure of a thickly muscled man in the shadows, who stepped forwards, bones crunching quickly as he changed into the werewolf. Katrina looked up as another werewolf, a female, landed in the alley from the building she had climbed up.  
  
She twisted her head, not weakened in the least, only more dangerous as the she wiped the blood away, leaving only the gouged mess that was once her eye. She began to change as the blood seeped into her mouth, feeling her skin pale and toughen, and her eyes change to red. Her teeth lengthened and her wings sprouted as she struggled to her feet.  
  
The male werewolf gave a low laugh and shook his head. "Relax, Katrina. You're about to be reborn, not killed." Katrina turned back to the other wolf, who leered at her and lunged. It was a feint though, and Katrina dodged back into the waiting arms of the man. The vampire turned around, ready to claw, when he slugged her. She sagged back to the ground, her gaze loose and unfocused by a blow that would have shredded a truck.  
  
Markus let the creature fall to the ground and watched Beth slowly transforming back into her human form. She was proud, her firm breasts jauntily thrust out, her figure strong and confident. She straddled the vampire and tilted her head up, mouthing her neck softly. Katrina's eyes rolled back into her head as she slumped, lifeless to the ground.   
  
Beth moved her leg between the vampire's and began to rub, feeling the cold wetness of the vampire beneath her torn skirt. She turned her head, glancing over her shoulder as Markus moved up behind her. The hunt always got him ready, the chase was to Viagra what the planet was to an ant. She could feel his cock weeping cum already as he pushed inside of the fallen vampire.

Beth pouted as she began to change, growing and growling as she sprouted her hair and the strength she loved. She could feel her bones shifting deep within her, but knew what it was to be powerful at any cost. She leant back down and began to slowly nibble on the throat of the vampiric stripper beneath her.  
  
Her slight teeth could only graze and puncture in her human form, but Beth loved the feeling of the creature beneath her regardless. She sighed and felt one of Markus's huge hands spreading around her hip. She couldn't turn her head as far around in her wolven form, but arched herself up. Markus couldn't help himself, and withdrew his cock from the comatose vampire and plunged it deep inside his wolven paramour.   
  
Katrina moaned on the ground as he pulled out of her, and Beth again shifted down to her human form, feeling Markus's cock filling her fully and hard as she shrunk down to human size. She rarely did this; Markus was too much for her normally. She could feel his huge cock inside of her, feel him breaking her as she moved down to suckle at Katrina.  
  
Katrina woke up slowly, feeling a tongue moving inside of her cold pussy. She was used to the sensation, she was a vampire in a good life, with plenty of food from losers willing to pay for their own deaths, though they didn't know it at the time. She was a stripper who sold favours, sex when she wanted it, sex for them before their death, or sometimes during. Her eyes slowly rolled back and forth, the vision of the alleyway swimming in front of her.  
  
She finally came to fully, feeling the ecstasy of an experienced tongue against her. Katrina watched the werewolf ramming his cock into the woman eating her lustily, and could smell blood from his assault. The blood and the sensations brewing from her centre overwhelmed her, driving her to spread her legs wider and lean back thrusting her hips up slightly into Beth's mouth.   
  
Beth and Markus both grinned. The vamp had fallen and spread as simply as the others, faster in fact. Markus's grin faded as the tightness of his lover began to get to him, feeling the blood and her excitement both slicking up his cock as he drove into her. He pulled out viscously, and Beth gave a gasped cry as he moved her aside and plunged up into Katrina's white body.   
  
Katrina gave a shriek as the huge cock impaled her, filling her completely. At first, she closed her eyes and grimaced as he slid his cock back and forth, made slick by Beth's tightness and blood. After a while, her expression loosened, as did she. Katrina's bone-white skin lifted, heaving in breaths and sighs as she was fucked. She opened her eyes and stared at Markus, who smugly arched his hips into her, making her cry out.  
  
Beth changed again behind them, growing out to her wolf state as she moved around. She plunged her claws into Katrina's wing, ripping her over onto her stomach and making her scream. Markus gave a deep gasped laugh as she clenched down onto him in her pain, and Beth turned, too, arching her pussy into Katrina's face.  
  
Katrina's talons jerked out, digging into the wolf's thighs as her teeth extended, plunging into the wolf's pussy with a vengeance as she was raped. Markus growled and slapped an open taloned hand down across the vampire's ass. Beth whined in pleasure as the vampire bit into her, drawing blood but stimulating her.   
  
She ground her hips into the biting vampire's face, enjoying the pain and raking sensations flowing through her. Beth came with a high cry, spurred on by the blood and the violence that was about to happen. Markus was grunting as he thrust in, grunts which joined into a low moan as he felt himself coming.   
  
He pulled out as Katrina gushed, cumming in spite of herself against the dark fur of her rapist. Markus grabbed her hair and tilted her face back, spilling his seed over her ruined eye and face. He gasped as he jerked his cock against her face, covering her again and again in his seed. He sagged back into the garbage of the alleyway, watching Beth struggle to her feet.   
  
Katrina moved to roll away, but Beth straddled her again and licked her face, her eyes on her lover as she tongued his cum and the vampire's blood into her mouth, savouring the intoxicating scent of death and power. Her eyes drifted down to Katrina's, who stared at her, wondering what would happen next. A slow smile moved Beth's face as she tilted Katrina's head back and then leant back, slashing viscously.   
  
She tilted her wolven head up and gave a long, loud howl as blood spurted up, covering her face. Katrina gasped for breath as she felt something strange. Her heart lurched into motion again, and warmth began to flood through her like waves at the beach. Beth lifted her wrist to her mouth and punctured the skin, letting her blood weep out slowly.   
  
The drops landed on Katrina's lips, and she shuddered, not understanding. Her eyes became unfocused again as she sagged back to the wet concrete. The blood trickled into her mouth, and Beth sat back and smiled, feeling the itchiness of her skin as it healed again. Markus stood up and began to change, his body shrinking slightly as he flowed back into human form.  
  
Beth followed suit and took a deep breath of the night air. She breathed out, tasting the city on her tongue. "We're building an army, lover, and I don't even know why." Markus held his hand out to her, and she slunk across Katrina's body and into his arms, staring up at the dark sky. He put a hand on her head and ran his fingers through her hair.  
  
"Evolution." Beth stared at the side of the alleyway and scoffed. Markus frowned. "Evolution, my Bethany. We had reached the pinacle of what our species was able to achieve. Werewolves and vampires were dying out in a world that had forgotten them. The path of evolution for our kind was just that. A path. It had a beginning, a pinnacle, and now an end. Evolution had left us. Now we begin again. Now nothing can stop us. Because we ARE evolution." Beth turned in her lovers arms and felt her breath racing heedlessly.  
  
"Take me again." Markus toyed with her hair for a moment and then pushed her onto her back. He lowered his head to her pussy and began to tongue her, tasting and savouring her lust in his mouth. His teeth morphed slightly, controlled change as he used them to slice into the skin around her mound. His tongue flicked her hard bud and she moaned as Katrina opened her eyes.  
  
Markus lifted his head for a moment as Katrina stared at them, lust fuelling her undead body. His mouth curled into a sneer of power. "Another Bloodwolf has risen." Katrina put her hand to her throat and her face, feeling the unlined skin. She glanced down at Beth, who was panting as Markus resumed his tongueing of her innermost heat.  
  
"He renamed me as I was reborn, Beth to Bethany. And so you are Katrina to Katherine." Katherine smiled as she began to change, black fur growing out of her slim body as she began to grow, her red eyes full of lust and power.   
  
********  
  
"How do I look? I feel like a stripper. Where are the rest of these shorts?" Mariella smiled in spite of herself and gave a soft laugh as she stood up. Gabriel was dressed in ornamental armour, silver to her gold. She tilted her head to the side and smiled as he blushed. They had been training for what seemed like months, every day, harshly grinding away his softness into a fighter worthy of her high standards.  
  
Gabriel had never been large, but now muscles covered what had once been flat and thin. It was a strange notion, seeing how different he looked. He ran his fingers over the bronze stone of his abbs and blushed somewhat at his coverings, or lack thereof. There was no temperature here, but he suddenly felt hot as he felt her gaze moving up and down his body. Mariella had not changed in their time together, she remained as reticent as ever, though small flashes of humanity came through in blinks.   
  
"If nothing else, it is flattering." Gabriel gave her a flat, cold glance and picked up the thick, soft robe she held out for him. He wore a loin cloth, his arms, elbows, knees, legs and torso all covered in silver jewelled bands and amulets. His hands were covered in shining gauntlets, but the rest of his body was bare, providing an easy target in his view. The cloth wrapped around him left little to the imagination.  
  
"You know, I think this is probably illegal in some countries. I feel like my ass is hanging out." Mariella smiled softly and shook her wondrous hair free from her hood.   
  
"Do you take nothing seriously?" Gabriel smiled for a moment, but then the smile faded.  
  
"I'm no hard luck story. I've done just fine up until now. But I grew up on the streets. If you don't try and find some joy in life, laughing at anything... well then you'll end up trying drugs or sleeping around or drinking to find that joy. And then you wind up in a body bag. It's not altruism that makes me boring. It's common sense."  
  
She nodded in agreement, or perhaps merely taking it in. It was hard to tell. Gabriel shifted the robe around him, suddenly warmed by it. He wondered at that for a moment as Mariella lifted a small page out of a pouch on her belt. He couldn't decide if it looked completely ludicrous, a belt over a loincloth, or if she was hot as hell. He looked down at her gold and black boots, and found himself wondering how she would look in heels.  
  
"I will train you in the use of the sword, the spear, the knife and your body." Gabriel pulled the hood up over his head and fidgeted, still not used to being so bare. He definitely needed to change the wardrobe if he was going to be fighting. "When you are ready, I will take you to a man who was once a hunter. He will train you in different, modern weapons. Weapons in which I have not been trained."   
  
Gabriel nodded and gestured to the forest around them. "How do we get out of here?" Mariella looked down at the small scrap of paper in her hands and handed it to him.   
  
"What does this say?" He frowned and stared at it. The twisting, scratched lines looked familiar, like the script on the parchment he'd used making the sword. Words formed in his mind, and he began to speak.  
  
"Gha, nahl droht Edenia lorght, rahlacht burceckh." He looked up at Mariella and reached out and touched his arm. "Eareatanach." There was a shimmering, as though the world around them was an image in a pond, rippled by the wind. Gabriel closed his eyes and breathed in deeply as Mariella stepped up close to him and put her other hand to him, her delicate seeming fingers sliding up to rest in the hollow here his neck met his shoulder.  
  
Her scent was surrounding him, possessing him, and Gabriel opened his mouth slightly as he leant down, opening his eyes. Mariella's chocolate hair was softly framing her face, and she was staring at him. The shimmering stopped, and he blinked and drew back. Mariella stepped back away from him and pulled the hood up over her head again, covering her face.  
  
Gabriel did the same, not wanting her to see his embarrassment. He looked around, seeing a dark hall, filled with pews. He turned back around and saw Mariella kneeling in penitence to a simple wooden alter, covered with flowers and bread. A bell began to toll far away, and Mariella stood up after a moment and turned back to him.   
  
"We're in Rome, deep in the Vatican." she said softly, answering his unspoken question. He nodded and eased his hand back off his sword. "Come. I must speak with Cardinal Guiteau. He can take us on the next path of our journey." Gabriel followed mutely, and Mariella watched him from the corner of her eye as they travelled through the halls of the church.   
  
His walk was different, a more careful, though confident step. He was aware of nearly everything that happened around them, but was careful to stay deeply hooded. Members of the church cast small glances at them, then continued on their way. Gabriel noted their nonchalance towards the heavily armed woman at his side, and the considerate looks towards his towering form.  
  
They moved quickly through the halls that Mariella seemed to know well, until they came to a small wooden door, far removed from the main area. Mariella knocked on it twice, then entered, and bowed low to a nun sitting at a desk, leafing through papers. "Mother Superior, may we speak with Cardinal Guiteau?" The mother superior gave her a small nod and slid her chair back, making her way to another room.  
  
"Cardinal, I beg your pardon for the interruption, but..."   
  
"That's quite alright, sister. The Magdelena has returned, hasn't she?" The door swung open again and a middle aged man stepped out. He had dark brown hair that looked just too short to be tied behind him, and a full beard, neatly trimmed. Both had slivers of gray through them, but he looked fit.   
  
A savage scar across his left eye belied the saintly peaceful expression on his face. He wore slim, round reading glasses, despite the viscious scar that had cost him his left eye. His cassock was neat and clean, and he was obviously pleased to see Mariella.   
  
He held his arms out wide and Mariella gave her a hug, surprising Gabriel. He patted her on the back and gave her a kiss on the forehead. In spite of himself, Gabriel felt a surge of jealousy, though the action was more fatherly or brotherly than intimate. Gabriel pushed down the feelings inside of him as Cardinal Guiteau held Mariella out at arms length. For the first time since Gabriel had known her, she was smiling broadly.  
  
"How was New York? You look tired." Mariella smiled at his concern and turned around, gesturing to Gabriel.   
  
"Purposeful. Cardinal Guiteau, this... is Gabriel." There was a touch of pride in her voice, and Gabriel found a small smile at the tone, and stepped up closer. Guiteau's eyes slid over her shoulder and locked onto Gabriel with a chillingly hard stare, evaluating, and with a flash of awareness, Gabriel knew that this man was the source of Mariella's own cold gaze.  
  
The eyes assessed him for a moment, then the cardinal smiled broadly. "Well, well, well. It's my pleasure Gabriel. We've been waiting for you for a long time." He glanced at the mother superior, who was setting some tea down onto a small table in the centre of the room. "Thank you, mother superior. May I ask you to give us some time?"   
  
The mother superior bowed low and shut the door behind her. Guiteau clasped Mariella's hand and sat down. Gabriel followed suit, careful to push the sword to the side across his back. Guiteau's eyes widened briefly, and then he poured three cups of dark tea.  
  
"Exposition was never really my strong point. Mellie knows a lot, but I suppose you'd like to know just exactly what it is you're in for?" Gabriel nodded and glanced at Mariella, who took a breath, her expression serious.   
  
"We're looking for Jack Crowe, Cardinal. You know where he is." Guiteau sank back into the chair and gave a whimsical smile.  
  
"I haven't heard that name spoken aloud in fifteen years." He gave a small chuckle, then looked at Gabriel. "You're in for a surprise, my friend, when you meet him. There is the legend that is Jack Crowe, then there is the reality." He raised a hand to his face, touching his scarred cheek for a moment. Gabriel narrowed his eyes.  
  
"He did that to you?" Guiteau's eyes locked onto Gabriel's, and his lip curled for a moment.   
  
"Jack Crowe is my friend. He saved my life, and I saved his. No, he did not do this to me. He made certain that this was all I'd receive. I was a hunter once, Gabriel, a hunter of the undead. Vampires. Sometimes I hated God for bringing me to this country." He shook his head again, a small smile on his face.  
  
"But then, believe it or not, killing an actual enemy of God brings you closer to the Creator. You are fighting His battle, and you are His sword, when He cannot weild it." He waved a hand in the air. "This is meaningless. Gabriel. The church has known of the existence of vampires and werewolves and such for as long as there has been a church."  
  
"And in all that time, the world has changed. Or more accurately, we changed the world until it suited us, but now we are no longer of the world. And thus, we are vulnerable to it. Jack and I fought the first wave of this supernatural change over a decade ago. A vampire master named Valek tried and almost succeeded in making himself a daywalker."  
  
"No longer content with their lot in life, Valek and his people tried to bring about a change that would have destroyed life as we know it, bringing the human world to it's knees by making him immortal, truly immortal. Sunlight, staking, he would have been impervious to it all. Until Jack Crowe stopped him." A small smile again found its way onto his face. Gabriel looked at Mariella, who was sipping her tea quietly, listening.  
  
"I was only a Father then. Padre Adam. I travelled with Jack, and along the way, became something of a hunter myself. Jack was the real deal, though. He'll be a hunter until the day he dies. And now the hunters are dying. Being changed. There must be an army of three hundred or more of these Bloodwolves, as they call themselves."  
  
Gabriel stood up, and Mariella followed suit. Guiteau looked at her and held her hand for a moment as he looked up at her. "Jack's in Thailand." Gabriel nodded slowly, finally convinced that he would need more than Mariella's help.   
  
"Thailand's a big place, Adam. We could spend a lot of time looking for him." Guiteau reached into his bookcase and pulled out an old blue book, a diary of some sort, and opened it to the last page. He tore the note out and handed it to Mariella.   
  
"The time you spend searching for him there will be well spent, Archangel's son. Jack Crowe's the killer every bloodsucker fears. The truest hunter alive today. His last letter had him there, on that river. Find him." His scarred gaze shifted to Mariella, then back at Gabriel, who was holding his robe tightly across the front of him. "And for the Lord's sake, get him some pants."  
  
********  
  
Katherine stared at her hands, seeing the cold blood underneath her dark fur pumping through her veins. She looked up at Markus, who was forcing his huge cock down Bethany's throat, while staring at Katherine. She watched his hips twitching as Bethany stroked them, her claws keeping him moving.  
  
"Another Bloodwolf has risen. We number in the hundreds, Katherine. I was the first, long ago. I made Bethany my queen, and now we rule. You know this." Katherine crawled on her knees and paws towards Markus, trembling as his strong scent came to her like a tidal wave. She was panting, breathing out cold air that didn't steam in the night.  
  
Her heartbeat was something she hadn't felt in over thirty-five years. Her fingers thrummed with it, filling her body with the strong, rhythmic beat. Markus grunted as Bethany gagged around his cock, and Katherine lowered her head, licking the six teats standing out firm on Bethany's furred body. Bethany began to keen as she swallowed Markus's cock.  
  
"Welcome to the winning side." Katherine looked up and rolled over, staring up his thrusting body into his dark eyes. A slow smile moved her as she faded back to her human form, and ran her hands over her body, rubbing her nipples as she stared at the huge length jutting out from the dark fur of Markus's crotch.  
  
"Power like this... it's intoxicating... it's so..." she trailed off as Bethany reached up and began to push her fingers inside of the human looking bloodwolf laying on her back along her body. Katherine gasped as she brought her hands over her head to rub along Bethany's jowls, feeling Markus's cock push down the wolven throat. She opened her eyes to slits as she watched Markus thrusting into his lover's toothed maw.  
  
"So much better than anything else you've had in your unlife." She nodded in agreement as Bethany worked her clawed fingers further into her cold centre. There was a throbbing jerk and a sigh, and she looked up as Markus panted, holding himself up against the wall. Bethany gagged and coughed, cum bubbling up out of her jowls and onto Katherine's hands.

Katherine brought her fingers back to her mouth and licked them clean, staring at Markus, who watched her with dark eyes. She savoured his taste before turning around and beginning to suckle on Bethany's teats. "You are my Packmaster, then." Markus gave a grunt of affirmation as he leant down, pushing his fingers inside her throbbing pussy.  
  
"I am. You are a Bloodwolf, now. Soon, my former furred brethren, and your inferior sires, will realise the simple truth. We are far evolved of them, and they are thusly obsolete. Bethany and I are to continue our search for more soldiers to feed our growing army. But you, Katherine, have a task."   
  
Bethany changed slowly to human form and pushed the obliging Katherine down her body, sliding her head between her thighs and running her fingers through the younger woman's hair. Bethany began to moan softly as Katherine's lust overtook her, and she began to mouth and suck at Bethany's pussy.   
  
Markus watched, feeling himself grow hard again, and began to slow rub his softened cock. His length grew as he gripped himself hard. In his human form, his cock was a third smaller, as was the rest of him. He pulled it hard, trying to give himself back his size. He could transform back into a bloodwolf again, but wanted to revel in the corrupted flesh of the man he was.  
  
He bent low, sniffing deeply, taking in the scent of the aroused women beneath him. His cock thickened again, and he moved forwards, pushing into Katherine. She barely grunted, but sighed, breathing heavily against Bethany's pussy. For her part, Bethany shook and moaned, and rolled over, sitting on Katherine's licking tongue and quivering over her.   
  
She moved around to face Markus, who kissed her. Bethany moaned in ecstasy against his tongue, feeling Katherine licking and suckling at her hard clit. She breathed heavily, moaning open-mouthed as Katherine slid four fingers inside her wetness. Bethany began to writhe her ass back and forth across Katherine's face, feeling her tongue and fingers bringing her to another explosion.  
  
Markus kept his steady rhythm until he watched Katherine feverishly moving under Bethany's pussy, and then pulled out and rammed himself deeply up her ass. Katherine's body surged up, and Bethany's eyes widened as she screamed, sagging down onto Markus's chest. "Teeth!" she groaned as she shuddered, panting wildly.  
  
Wetness ran down Markus's leg, and he realised that Katherine had cum when he entered her ass. She was squeezing him inside of her, but her hands and face were limp under Bethany, who slowly, weakly got off her and slumped down to the wet concrete and lay there, breathing heavily.   
  
Katherine was grimacing, biting her lip hard as Markus drove himself into her ass, watching his cock smoothly and quickly piston out of her low hole. Katherine opened her eyes and stared at Markus, who gritted his teeth, feeling himself about to cum again. Katherine stared at him, hungrily. "Cum in me. I want to feel you explode deep in me. I want to feel you..." she trailed off as he sped up more, and her voice was lost in the high-pitched whine of her shaking body.  
  
Markus gave a bellow as his cock surged thick inside of her ass and tensed, blowing stream after stream of cum inside her passage. Katherine's face was pained, but her mouth was open as she panted, a smile on her face. Markus pulled out and moved up to her face, pushing his cum, blood and shit smeared cock into her waiting mouth.  
  
Katherine looked at Bethany, who watched lustily, as she sucked hard, cleaning him. She raked her teeth along his underside, and Markus staggered as his cock surged again, spewing another fresh shot of cream inside her throat. Bethany stood up as Markus backed away, staring up at the lightening sky.  
  
The two female bloodwolves began to kiss, rubbing each other's bodies and savouring one another, until Markus growled and shifted, changing his body to the dark wolf's. "We have to move. The sun will be up within the hour, and we need to find shelter." Katherine pulled her head back and stared at Bethany lustily.  
  
"Yes, Packmaster." Bethany turned away and stood up. Katherine suddenly got the feeling that she barely even considered her alive, now that she was done with her. Markus hugged his queen to him and glanced back at Katherine.   
  
"Head to London. Bethany's castle is there. It now houses many stray dogs of war. Experiment. Find if they can be changed, or reverted back to a human in order to be changed into one of the Purified." She nodded, and cleared her throat, then changed into her dark wolf. Bethany followed suit, and they split up, the two wolves heading south, to the border, and Katherine heading to the airport.  
  
********  
  
"This river is three hundred miles long. We may search for a long time." Mariella sighed and pulled herself up straight. "But Cardinal Guiteau would not lead us astray. How many miles have we come?" Gabriel shifted in his seat and read the GPS.   
  
"Three hundred and sixteen." A small smile crossed his face. "3:16 says I just whipped your ass." Mariella glanced at him as they moved quickly through the bush, navigating the trails but pure luck, as far as Gabriel could tell. They were blasting through vines and overhanging limbs with brutal disregard in the jeep.  
  
"If you refer to John 3:16, then you are..." He waved his hand and slid his sunglasses back on his face.   
  
"Joke, Mellie." She glared at him as he held his hands up. "What, the Cardinal called you Mellie. You ever get the notion that it's a bit funny, your name could be Mellie Maggie." She didn't see the funny side, however, and ignored him, sliding the jeep around the corner at a dangerous speed.   
  
They travelled through the bush for several days, finally coming to something resembling a town, a resupplying dock for boats on the river. They pulled up at an old, rusted refuelling station, and paid for another tank full. Several fuel cannisters were strapped to the back, but they had money to spend. The Vatican's coffers ran deep.  
  
Gabriel got out and again read the letter. It was the last page, only a third of the paper was written on, and he sniffed. The paper smelt of beer and a hundred other things, but it was all hidden. Nothing more he could do, except...  
  
His thoughts were taken by the sound of a commotion. A large Thai man was throwing a young boy to the path halfway up what could only jokingly be called the main street. The man had an apron on, with obviously liquid stains on it, and Gabriel jerked his head to Mariella, who glanced up the street and nodded.   
  
They drove up and parked outside, then made their way into the dilapidated building. Mariella lifted her robe off her head and looked about inside, not fazed by the sudden darkness at all. There were eight or nine people at the bar, including one American and what looked like two eastern Europeans. Mariella tensed beside him and jerked her chin towards the American, and Gabriel nodded wordlessly.   
  
If there was one word Gabriel had to use to describe the man at the bar it would have been hard. He was the kind of tough like billion-year-old leather. He wore a black t-shirt and tired, worn jeans, with black boots. He had a pair of black glasses on the bar and a leather jacket along the back of his stool. He smoked a thin cigar and didn't turn as they came through the door.  
  
He lifted his head only to take another shot of whisky and Mariella nodded. "That's him. It has to be." The man tilted his head slightly, but still didn't turn. He shifted his hand down to his waist, and Gabriel felt his body tense up, readying himself should the man try anything. Mariella took a breath and moved to the bar, standing beside him.  
  
Gabriel moved to the other side and sat down on a stool, facing him openly. "Jack Crowe." The man sighed, but didn't move his hand from his waist, where Gabriel could now see the black handle of a Glock.   
  
"You come a long way in bright sunshine, so you must be religious." His voice was nasally, a twang that Gabriel couldn't help feeling sounded strange coming from the tough man. Mariella stretched out her hand and touched his arm.   
  
"My name is Mariella Rosalia Mariella Sarah Magdelena." The man lifted his eyes for the first time since they'd walked in and stared at her. He leant back and studied her, and for a moment, Gabriel wondered if he were the only person in the world without that cold, assessing gaze.  
  
"Well, Sister, I'm guessing here, but if I had to put some greens on it, I'd say you're here about vampires. And maybe a wayward Padre." The barman looked up quizzically, and Mariella shook her head.   
  
"Worse. Can we talk?" He stared down at his drink for a moment, then pushed the bottle back to the bar with a sigh.  
  
They moved out of the bar in silence, and Jack jumped into the front seat of the jeep and barely waited for the other two before heading off. The drive down to the docks was short, but loud. Jack careened through the jungle much quicker and more recklessly than Mariella. As they pulled up to a small, beaten up wharf that led out onto a river barge, Mariella turned in her seat and looked at Gabriel.  
  
He gave her a wan smile and adjusted his sword across his back. Jack looked in the mirror and gestured to the boat. "Home-sweet shit-heap." They got out and stomped across the wharf, and Jack slid the door across behind them. Gabriel heard a click and whirled around, drawing his sword as Jack held the gun up to his head. "So who the fuck are you supposed to be?"  
  
Mariella held up her hands, not drawing her dagger or gun, and stepped up to Jack's side. "We need your help, Mister Crowe. Cardinal Guiteau sent us to you." Gabriel watched the indecision briefly pass over Jack's harsh features.   
  
"Cardinal. Pfft. You know how he got that job? He blew his predecessor away with a shotgun. I watched him do it. Back when he was a good man. Now he's another church dog. You know what the church did for me? I saved every fuckshit on the face of the earth from the first known vampire."  
  
"Created by the Catholic church, who in turn, nearly let themselves be destroyed, and then blamed the whole mess on me. Fuck you, and fuck them, and fuck your need for help." Mariella held up the page that had led them to him.   
  
"You hate him, yet you still write to him? And if he's the Judas you claim him to be, then why does he write back and protect you and care for you still?" Jack tilted his head up and pursed his lips for a moment. Gabriel stepped back slowly, slipping the sword back into its sheath across his back. Jack didn't lower his pistol.  
  
"Why did you do it?" Jack narrowed his eyes for a moment, frowning. "Why did you save every fuckshit on the fact of this earth if you already knew the church was responsible? Why didn't you just let them deal with it on their own?" Jack slowly lowered the pistol and his eyes flicked from Gabriel to Mariella.  
  
"Because there was no-one else. I was the best the church had, and... and I knew that if I walked, that it wouldn't matter what the church did." His eyes flicked to the crucifixes adorning Mariella's armour and ornaments. "Praying only gets so much done. Sooner or later, you need steel, and bullets, and hard men to use them."  
  
"So you did it because it needed to be done, and you were the only one around who could do it." Jack nodded. Gabriel took a breath and glanced at Mariella. "Well, now there's something that needs to be done, again. And apparently I'm the only one who can do it. And I need your help. Or I'm not gonna be able to do shit." Jack looked at Mariella, who stared at Gabriel and then looked back at Jack.  
  
"You came here expecting me to help you? With what?" Gabriel looked at Mariella again and sighed.   
  
"I didn't come here expecting anything. You'll help. Because you're a good man. And because the only good fight is a worthy fight. And if you want to live in this world, you've got to fight for it." Mariella smiled softly at him, and stepped closer to his side. He reached down and held her hand, and Jack holstered his pistol in the waistband of his jeans again.  
  
"You're fucking crazy." He shook his head and threw the butt of the cigar out the window and grinned, one side of his mouth lifting up sarcastically. "Jack Crowe." He held out his hand and Gabriel shook it, nodding.   
  
"Gabriel Lehane." Jack held his hands out and shook his head again. He moved over to a desk and pushed most of the papers to the side, scattering maps and lists to the deck. He pushed in the centre of the desk and a small click sounded, and the desk split up the middle. The seam was so well hidden in the grooves of the wood, Gabriel would never have seen it.  
  
As the sides of the desk lifted up, Gabriel could see at least three dozen weapons, of varying calibre and make, and other items, too, items he had no names for. Jack gave him a lopsided grin again and lifted up a crossbow, with a cable attachment, and shrugged his shoulders. "Shall we dance?"  
  
********  
  
Katherine stared down at the young boy, barely out of his teens, who stared back at her with lustful, red eyes. After three months, she had finally done it. More bloodwolves arrived each day. And now they had the means to change both vampires, and werewolves, into bloodwolves. Legend had long claimed that vampires not killed properly could turn into werewolves.   
  
This was almost, though not quite, correct. Both species changed back to what they were before their infection, or purification, depending on whose view it was. The problem was, werewolves could breed, whereas vampires could not. So any werewolf killed by a bloodwolf's talons or teeth made no change, because rare was the wolf changed and not born these days.  
  
Katherine stepped back, allowing the new one to rise. This young one was impressive, even as a wolf, she had noticed him. He pulled the huge needle out of his ribs and howled, changing. Katherine began to laugh as the needle hit the stone wall, the remnants of the silver-green liquid splattering along the stone.   
  
A virulent mix of smelted platinum, silver nitrate and essence of garlic had brought an end to Katherine's experiments. Finally, a cure for the homo-lupine virus was in her claws. Katherine turned, exalting in success, and walked back to the huge windows showing Bethany's former grounds. The process was not pleasant, but then none of the participants were willing, so it mattered little.  
  
The potent combination literally burned the virus out of the system, leaving only the frail, human base. As they began to gasp for dying breaths, a simple drink of Katherine's purified blood gave them life again. Markus and Bethany stopped by regularly to check the progress of her experiments, and brought with them captured wolves for her.   
  
The newly risen bloodwolf stepped up to her, and her thin frame gestured to the sunlit window. "This is deadly to us now. But our strength is far greater, as is our speed and our endurance. We need only take the days for rest, because for now, that is our only weakness. Not silver, not garlic, nothing but sunlight. We heal faster than the time it would take to stake us." The bloodwolf sniffed and his breathing increased as he tasted her heated scent on the air.  
  
He took several steps forwards, and Katherine grabbed hold of his jaws with one pale hand, and brought him down to her level. "And you will obey, because I am the greater. I am your sire, and have been created by our king and Packmaster himself." The bloodwolf's groin stirred, and his cock began to move out of his groin. It was covered in dark, tawny fur, then pink as it extended fully, and Katherine let go of his jowls and reached down.  
  
"Change," she ordered him. Katherine watched in fascination as the black fur receded into his body, his cock shrinking slightly but not softening. It remained hard in her grip, and she waited, watching as slowly, the fur receded off his shaft and she could feel his heartbeat through his cock. She let go of him and turned around, listening to him follow her as she moved off through the castle.  
  
She led him to Bethany's bedroom, and moved him to lay down on the black silk covers. The boy sighed as she discarded her robes, uncovering her full, lusting body. Katherine stared at the boy, barely a man, and knelt on the bed, using her fingernails to lightly score his skin as she moved up to him.   
  
She laid down across his body and spread her fingers over his chest. "You're one of my achievements; my measures to please the Packmaster. But you're more than that. You're the destiny of all those idiot creatures that walk this world unknown." She moved down his body and gripped his cock in her hand, running it over her lips and feeling it throb with his heartbeat in her hands.  
  
"At first, lover, you were to be servants, but you are just as strong, just as powerful, and just as worthy, for you are not as weak as we supposed you to be, being different. Risen from the wolves, not the bloods, but still just as strong. Still just as powerful." She lowered her head and the boy gasped as she sucked him into her mouth, savouring the salty, musky scent and taste of him on her tongue.  
  
Katherine used her right hand to hold his cock up as she sucked along the seam, working her way down his shaft until she came to his balls. They hung full and thick, and a smile found it's way onto the bloodwolf female's lips. She rubbed the tip of his meat with her thumb and sucked on his sack, feeling the hairs and the skin rubbing on her tongue.  
  
The boy moaned helplessly as she continued to suck on his cock, alternating between slathering his balls and sucking her spit back into her mouth and moving up and rubbing her tongue on his thick head. He was thrusting into her grip, and finally began to whine loudly as she jerked him. His hips quivered as his mouth soundlessly opened and closed, until he gave a jerk and his cock erupted against her cheek.   
  
Katherine pulled him several times, coating her hand in his cum until he moaned helplessly again and gave a cry, blowing another stream of cum into the air. She smiled and sucked him deep into her throat, tonguing him clean and back hard again. It was one of the things she loved about her supernatural paramours. Their ardour never waned, constantly needing more and harder releases.  
  
She straddled him and guided his thick cock up into her, teasing him with her eyes and tightness. She moved down and slid onto him, and the boy moaned between tightly clenched teeth. His canines began to grow, and Katherine clenched down onto him and morphed her fingers into claws, grabbing hold of his chest.  
  
The boy's eyes faded back to blue and he nodded to her as she resumed her slow rocking on his meat. She ran her hands up into her hair and arched herself back, feeling him grab at her thighs and squeeze. He tensed his cock, thickening it slightly, but she was so tight around him Katherine could feel every throbbing beat.   
  
She ran her hands through her hair, mussing it over her face and a delighted smile. She kept her eyes closed as she rocked onto the boy beneath her, rolling her hips up and down and feeling his cock pushing through her. Her nipples itched with sudden heat and she reached down and grabbed the boys hands off her thighs and brought them to her breasts.  
  
He squeezed, gently at first, but her cries urged him on, until he was twisting viscously. Katherine shrieked loudly as she rocked down onto his hard meat just as he twisted, and they settled into that rhythm. Her thick, blonde curls fell over her face as she held her arms out wide, beginning to increase her speed.  
  
Katherine watched the boy's face, getting off on how much she was dominating him as much as how he felt inside her. "You'll be mine..." she whispered faintly, lost in the feeling of the thrusting cock inside of her and the lustful scent of the boy beneath her. "You'll be my guard, my meat when I need it. You'll be my slave, and you'll...ugh..." She threw her hair back over her head and reached up, grabbing the overhanging buntings on both sides of the four poster bed.

"You'll fucking love it..." The young man nodded as he thrust upwards quickly, feeling himself tingling all up his spine and gasping for breath he didn't need.   
  
"Yes mistress... m-mistress..." Katherine moaned and gave a loud cry as she clenched down hard, feeling him rubbing up against her clit and making her explode as she came. Clear fluid gushed out across his abdomen as she came with a long cry, feeling herself gushing like a fountain. The young bloodwolf gave a bellowed howl and gripped her hips tightly, his fingers morphing into claws as he blasted her with his cold seed.  
  
Katherine slowed her rocking and collapsed down onto him. The boy dropped his arms to his sides and moaned as Katherine raised her hips, feeling him move out of her. His cock hit his stomach with a wet slap, and she smiled, sated for a moment. She reached over for her red silk robe and slipped it around her shoulders.   
  
It stuck for a moment to her thighs, where the boy had scratched her. The wounds had already closed, but the blood remained. She looked out at the midday sun and ran a hand through her hair. "Run me a bath. I'm going to sleep. Be here when I awaken tonight." The boy nodded and stepped out of the sheets, proudly naked as he moved through the room to the bathroom.  
  
Katherine took a deep breath and opened up her phone. It rang twice, then Bethany answered it. "We're in Bangladesh. We'll be back in London in three days." Katherine gave a sigh.  
  
"I've done it, my lady. We can change them all." Bethany laughed and there was another sound. Markus's voice sounded down the phone, and Katherine felt her heartbeat strengthen for a moment.  
  
"You've done well. We'll return, with more. How goes the training?" Katherine looked out at the midday sun through the UV glass and threw off her robe, changing into a bloodwolf slowly, revelling in the change and the power that her Packmaster had given her.   
  
"Everything goes well, my lord Packmaster. When you return, you will not be disappointed." Markus hung up and the boy came back, his human form gone as he too changed. Katherine turned around to him as he came up behind her, his strong body pressed against her. She smiled as she pushed him away and moved towards the bathroom, shutting the door in his whining face.   
  
The younger bloodwolf moved back to the window and watched the deadly sun from behind the safety of the glass. His eyes moved over the hills, and then jerked back as he noticed a sudden flash of bright light.  
  
Far out into the lands, the small boy ducked back down behind the hill with a squeak of fear. He pulled the video camera out and watched the footage, then shoved the camera into the bag and ran down the hill to his bike. He began to peddle as fast as he could towards the small town's church.  
  
********  
  
"You called the strongest vampire you'd ever faced a pole-smoking fashion-victim?" Jack laughed and shrugged as he finished cleaning the pistol in front of him and began to reassemble it. There were a half-dozen guns laid out on the table in front of them, and Gabriel was beginning to get the hang of the process.  
  
"Yeah, well, he had me beat. I had nothin' left but defiance, you know? Lemme tell you somethin' kid, hubris is the best weapon you'll ever have against these fuckers, okay? They already think they're fuckin' tough as shit, and better than anythin' we've fuckin' got up against them. Ok, so if you throw them off, taunt 'em a little, you know, fuck 'em up, well, you've got an edge where you didn't before."   
  
Mariella watched the two at the table sitting in companionable nature, cleaning the weapons that Jack had used to teach Gabriel to shoot. He had a natural talent, but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Gabriel had a natural talent at HUNTING, and all it's different aspects. She heard a beep and turned, noting the small bike as it moved out past the wharf, leaving behind the mail.  
  
She didn't bother to interrupt; Gabriel needed to know everything Jack could teach, and Mariella had everything she'd ever need already. As she moved down the wharf, she wondered at how things had changed. It had been only three months, at least in real time, since she'd collected Gabriel. It had been an intense time in the Ghadhim's forest.   
  
She knew he harboured feelings for her. But they had no time for feelings. At least, that's what Mariella kept telling herself. Gabriel was handsome, in more than a cute, attractive way. He was alluring to her. There was a real sense of danger to him, a possibility of violence, on a layer of incredible compassion. There was something about him, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.  
  
Mariella was inexperienced with men. She knew that her beauty, an aspect of her powers, as every Sister of the Order of the Magdelena were unbelievably beautiful, was something to behold. But Mariella was raised by the Church, a sister and devoted servant of God Himself. She had no leave to feel love for anyone other than the Church and God.   
  
She pulled the letters out of the box and moved back down the wharf. It wasn't that she was immune to his allure, either, which bothered her. She was removed from the norm, it was a part of her destiny. One day, the church would choose a partner, and they would concieve, and the child would belong to the church. It was all she had known.  
  
Gabriel threw that to the winds. His easy charm and looks were secondary. He made her feel. Made her remember she was a woman as well as a sacred warrior. Mariella wondered at that as she pulled aside the curtain that served as Jack's front door. She resolved to keep their involvement strictly to the side of finding and destroying the bloodwolf nest.  
  
She looked down at the package in her hand and saw that it was addressed to her. Gabriel stood up and downed the rest of his water, looking for her. She looked up at him and held up the photos and sheets of parchment, bearing the seal of her order. "We're done here. There's a nest just outside of London, where these creatures are congregating. We ought to move."   
  
Jack nodded and handed Gabriel a weapons case and began to gather some items of his own. "Yeah, well, we're good." He nodded to Gabriel. "He's ready. Ish." Gabriel snorted and turned back, beginning to gather his own items. Mariella moved to join them and Gabriel squeezed her hand, giving her a soft smile. She answered with a soft smile and look of her own, despite her silent vow.  
  
Gabriel looked back at Jack as he began to suit up and grabbed a strange, large case. He handed it to Gabriel, who again looked at him inquiringly. "Just ish?" Jack snorted and lit one of his thin cigars.  
  
"Yeah, well, you're still getting a chaperone. I still got a fight or two left in me." Mariella nodded and shouldered her pack as she headed out to the jeep.  
  
"We're out of here at first light two days from now. We've got a long drive to go back to the plane." Jack nodded and shrugged.   
  
"There's three of us, we can drive in shifts." Mariella nodded and dropped the curtain behind her. Gabriel stared after her until Jack lightly nudged him in the shoulder with his elbow as he stuffed some food into yet another pack.  
  
"C'mon, slayer, we've got more to talk about on the way." Gabriel nodded as he followed them out of the boat, down the wharf. They took off under the morning sun and kept driving, switching when one of them was tired. They stopped only for toilet breaks and refuelling, until finally the airstrip became visible as they topped the last mountain.  
  
The night was finally cooling, though, and the drive down wasn't one that any of them wanted to attempt in the waning light. Jack shrugged as they drained the last of the fuel into the tank. "We'll make it in no time in the morning. The plane wouldn't leave without us. And we'll be minutes late at best. It's only half an hour from here."   
  
Gunfire sounded faintly from the valley, and Jack snuggled in along the back seat, resting his head on his pack. "Besides, I don't really wanna run into those tree pirates and have to kill someone 'at still needs to breathe." Gabriel sighed and looked up at the slowly darkening sigh. He thought that they might have been able to make it, and knew that they could have fought their way through, but on second thought...  
  
He watched as the pale pink sky slowly turned dark, until the moon came out from behind the fading clouds, bathing the entire country in pale blue. He took in the night air and looked at Mariella, who smiled at him weakly and moved out of the jeep. They'd barely spoken since leaving Jack's houseboat.  
  
Gabriel watched her move back through the jungle a little, and followed. Jack opened one eye and watched them, then rolled over and muttered to himself. Gabriel pushed the foliage out of his way until he came to where Mariella was sitting, staring out over the valley they'd driven through. He had to admit, it looked beautiful, and sounded even more so.  
  
Birds and other animals called to one another simply, and the night air was filled with the heady scents of jasmine, orchids, and life. He sat down beside Mariella, who didn't acknowledge his presence for a while. He reached out to touch her hand, and she looked down at their entwined fingers.  
  
"Are... are you ready?" He didn't answer her for a moment, staring out at the incredible beauty of the jungle around them. He breathed in deeply and savoured the scents of Thailand herself, and of Mariella's hair.   
  
"I don't know. I once heard a man say that in battle, everyone has a game plan until they've been hit. I believe that's true. Once we're in there, fighting... I don't know. I'm the son of an Archangel, but all I've seen me do is heal quickly. I don't know what there is about me that's different. I might be destined for all this, destined for whatever. But I still don't know why."  
  
Mariella sat unmoving until he picked a small orchid and reached around, sliding it slowly into her hair, above her ear. She looked at him then, staring at him with her incredible eyes. The moonlight above them bathed them in pale blue light, and to Gabriel, Mariella looked like some kind of mystical goddess. His mouth opened slowly and he leant forwards.  
  
Their lips touched lightly at first. Mariella reached up and caressed his cheek with the back of her hand, then slipped her glove off and touched his cheek. Gabriel gently cradled the back of her head in his hand, and she pushed herself slightly against him, leaning in to him. The kiss continued softly for a moment until Gabriel felt her shaking in his arms and pulled back. Tears poured down her face and she looked away, her hand to her lips.  
  
"I don't want to feel this for you." Gabriel leant back again, but her hand suddenly gripped him tightly. Her face turned back towards him, her mouth still covered by her other hand. Her warm eyes were wet and shining, and tears flowed down her cheeks when she closed her eyes. "I'm not meant to want something for myself."  
  
Gabriel considered that and brought her fingers up to his lips, kissing her gently. He reached out to her and cradled her face in his hands, and brought her closer to him. "If I could stop loving you, I wouldn't, Mariella. I wouldn't." He gave a slight sigh as he stared at her face. "You're probably the only person in the world that actually understands me."  
  
He slid his hands behind her head and lowered her face, until they were cheek to cheek. Her tear was wet against him, and he breathed in the deep scent of her hair. "Not as some destined warrior or archangel's son. As Gabriel. As the guy who loves you." She gave another sob in his arms and then leant back and grabbed his head, pressing him to her and kissing him fiercely.  
  
Gabriel laid them down gently onto the ground, using her thick robe as a blanket. He undid the small clasp at the front, under her chin, and the robes parted behind them. He kissed her cheeks, where her tears had fallen, and gently began to undo the clasps that held her armour and uniform on. One by one, her armour fell back to the ground around them, and then she was clothed only in her tight pants and top.   
  
Gabriel began to take his own armour off, and Mariella stopped him with quivering hands and began to undo the straps, as he had done for her. Gabriel watched her slowly gaining confidence. He held himself above her, not wanting to crush her. The orchid in her hair looked pale blue in the moonlight, and he slowly reached down and kissed her again.   
  
Mariella's hands faltered on the straps of his armour, and then her hands spread across his chest, using the straps to pull him down closer to her. Gabriel shrugged himself out of the remainder of his upper armour, and watched the expression on Mariella's face as she ran her hands up his body and across his shoulders. She tenderly met his eyes and kissed him again.  
  
Gabriel couldn't help feeling thuggish and brutish, holding himself over this thing that was too clean, too pure for him to touch. He ran his fingers through the dark brown hair that looked almost black in the moonlight, and stared at her. "I..." He trailed off, and grinned as she shook her head, biting her lip.  
  
"Don't." He nodded and they rolled over, until she was lying on top of him. She slid her hands down his torso, pushing his tight pants down as he kicked them off. She reared back and pulled her top off, and Gabriel leant up in awe at the taut perfection above him. Everything about her was perfect. He leant up and kissed a line from between her breasts up her neck, and she pushed him down with a pleased sigh.  
  
In another moment they were both naked, and Gabriel kissed Mariella's bared shoulder with smiling lips. She stared at him and then reached behind her, starting as she touched him. Gabriel felt lightning racing up his body at her touch, and gave a terse breath. Mariella looked behind her at his hardness, rearing up straight from his body, and then turned back.  
  
Fear and vulnerability showed on her features for the first time since Gabriel had met her, and then she pushed her hand down between her legs and braced herself on his stomach. They both held their breath as she felt him pushing up into her, and then met resistance. Gabriel frowned, not understanding for a moment, then Mariella tensed and steeled herself and pushed down sharply.  
  
Gabriel felt the resistance give way as Mariella gave a sudden pained cry, and gasped. He sat up and enfolded her in his arms as she panted, and felt something trickling down between their legs as she held him tightly to her. Her head moved back and she kissed at his face lightly, until she began to move on him slightly. Her expression was pained for a time longer, until finally her face softened, and she opened her eyes.  
  
Her breath was steady against his lips as they moved together, slowly at first, then faster and faster. There was that constant, rocking rhythm between them as they both took in the sensations created between them, and the atmosphere of the hot night. Gabriel ducked his head beside hers and inhaled the scent of her hair, entranced by her in an almost mystical way.  
  
For her part, Mariella ran her fingers over his back and muscles, feeling the strength in him, and the feelings of contentedness and peace she found there, in his arms. He was breathing heavily in her arms, and she knew that she was in his soul, right then and there. She leant back, further and further, until she was almost doubled over, feeling him twist and thrust up into her.  
  
Her mouth was soundlessly open and her breath scorched her throat as she felt herself beginning to sweat for the first time in nearly a decade. Gabriel was lathered as he moved under her, but neither was losing stamina, urged on by their connection, and their otherworldly strength. Her arms went limp, and Gabriel continued to thrust up into her, until finally she shook and twisted, her body going taut around him.  
  
Mariella crashed forwards with a low moan and slammed them into the ground, where she gushed against Gabriel's thrusting hips. He gave a gasp and rolled them over, eliciting a moan from her as his cock slid out of her while he shifted between her legs as her thighs slid up his hips, encasing him between her legs. Mariella moaned happily again as he slid up her body, sliding himself easily inside of her.  
  
Her eyes opened as she moved to drape her arms around his neck, pulling him up to kiss her smiling lips. Gabriel kissed at her lips tenderly as he moved his hips back and forwards, feeling her tightness eased slightly by her wetness. Her brown eyes were filled with lust as she lay under him, watching him thrusting into her. Mariella's arm flexed, and brought her shoulder up as Gabriel's mouth opened hungrily, wanting to taste her.  
  
Already driven on by her own climax and her scent, Gabriel's body began to tense in time to his thrusts, and he moved along her thighs, feeling her flesh against him made slick by their sweat. The hot night air surrounded them with the thick scents of jasmine and the orchid vines through the trees as Gabriel swallowed, tasting only Mariella on his tongue.   
  
Her hands spread down his back and shoulder, urging him on as his thrusts quickened, until he gritted his teeth and gasped, cumming deep inside of her. Mariella felt him gushing again and again deep within her, and held him close to her body as his strength gave out and he sagged against her, crushing her wonderfully under him.  
  
Gabriel and Mariella caught their breath, not moving from their embrace. The night air didn't cool much more, and there was no breeze to cool them off as Mariella slid down to lie at Gabriel's side. The next morning, she opened her eyes slowly and inhaled, smelling Gabriel thick in the air as he pressed himself up against her body from behind. She rolled over in the false dawn light and ran a fingertip down his face.  
  
"I love you." The whispered words sounded strange in her ears, but Mariella knew she'd never take them back, no matter what. Gabriel stirred slowly and opened one eye. A slow smile moved his face, and he kissed her mouth tenderly. She blushed and covered her smile.   
  
"Hey you." he whispered. She smiled again as he stretched and looked at the brightening east skyline. "We should get moving..." She nodded, and felt strange relief that he hadn't heard her whisper. She reached for her pants and armour, and began to strap it on. They dressed in silences, stealing smiles between them, until they were fully dressed.   
  
Gabriel reached down and plucked another orchid from the vines through the bush behind them and slid it into her hair. Mariella's smile was sudden and wide, and Gabriel reached down and shook her cloak out, shaking the leaves and grass from it. He draped it over her shoulders and marvelled again at how she didn't sweat immediately. He didn't don his own cloak, but held it in his hand as they moved back towards where the jeep was parked.  
  
Jack was snoring loudly, his feet hanging over the doors of the jeep at crazy angles as Gabriel moved up and tapped his boot with the bottom of his sword. The snoring didn't stop and the two looked over the door right down the barrel of a shotgun. Jack smiled, and stopped his snoring. "Thought you two kids might be those jungle boys come to sneak up on poor old Jack." Gabriel laughed and threw his cloak in the back, sliding into the drivers seat.  
  
Mariella jumped into the passenger seat and stretched her arm out across between them, laying it behind Gabriel's neck and reaching forwards to touch him. Jack glanced at the subconscious gesture and pursed his lips together for a moment, then settled back into the leather of the seat. "Lets get outta here, kid. Wake me when we get to the plane."  
  
Half an hour, almost to the second, later, they stood in front of the church plane that had dropped them off. The pilots were starting up the engines and Jack was stowing away the gear, muttering that they were the only ones they could trust when it came to their own weapons. Gabriel turned back and looked as the sun came over the horizon and crested the hill, bathing the entire valley in orange light.

He looked at Mariella and felt his breath catch in his throat as she was painted golden, a gentle smile on her face as she turned to the welcome sunshine. Gabriel felt himself standing up straighter and closed his eyes, feeling the sun's energy revitalizing him. Mariella lifted the orchid down to her nose and sniffed, then turned back to Gabriel.   
  
"I love this country. It's so beautiful, so natural." He smiled at her and moved up beside her. She didn't shy away from his touch, and leant back in, moulding her body to his. "I almost don't want to leave. I've been to so many countries, but you never stop and take the time to notice the incredible beauty that the Creator made." Jack moved up beside them and waved his hands dismissively.  
  
"Hate to break up this cloying moment, but the nausea's getting to me." Mariella smiled at him and he shifted his gaze to Gabriel. "You better take as much of heaven with you as you can, kid, 'cos once the fighting starts, it's gonna feel a lot more like hell." Gabriel nodded and they moved to the waiting plane. The pilot turned around and held his hand over the microphone as he shouted above the jet engines.  
  
"Where to, sirs, miss?" Gabriel steeled himself and nodded to the others as they settled in for the flight.   
  
"London."


	3. Armegeddon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything comes to a head. Vampires. Werewolves. Loose Ends. Oh my.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Okay guys, here it is, sorry for the long wait. Now, if you have read the others, I STILL advise you to watch the movie John Carpenter's Vampires. Also, pick up a copy of The Magdelena comics, by Top Cow. All the rest is pretty much me. Enjoy, and remember, a good story is long and worth it, a GREAT story needs comments..... please...? :)

Katherine picked up the small child's head and stared into his eyes. The tiny boy would have barely been nine; he had been no match for her wolf. Her pet lifted his red eyes, his mouth leaving her, and she reared up and slapped him, teeth spinning away across the floor. The wolf cub, barely twenty winters old when she'd changed him, cowered under her might and clutched her groin again.  
  
Katherine sighed in pleasure as she leant back. He had made her come a half-dozen times at least this day, and she felt sated, but he felt too good, and longed for a release. The creatures cock was begging for release, but she wouldn't allow him the pleasure until she had had her fill.  
  
The bloodwolf's teeth slid into her thighs and stomach while his tongue moved up inside of her. His tongue itself was longer than most men's cocks, and he writhed it around within her, making her hiss her pleasure between clenched teeth. The bloodwolf, eight feet tall and filled out with muscles, power and violence, worshipped at her centre as the rest of the Castle when to their beds.  
  
Her nights were filled with creation. Nearly a hundred and fifty of the creatures now resided at the Castle Della Nostrum, the former abode of one of Katherine's own sires. They awaited the arrival of the King and Queen of the Pack, who would be returning after a month's absence, gathering more vampires and werewolves to turn into bloodwolves.  
  
Lady Elisabeth Della Nostrum was a vampire, turned almost a millennia ago, who had been purified by the Packmaster King himself. She was the second of her kind, second only to the Packmaster himself. She and her fictitious progeny had been well-bred and better off fixtures of the London socialite scene for longer than anyone could remember, though no-one had known she was a vampire.  
  
Markus Stormbridge had become aware. She had gotten him captured by one of her many inconsequential vampiric lovers, for her amusement. In truth, she had needed something different, and approached Markus with an offer of power. Ironically, Markus had allowed himself to be captured, and thus had gained entry.  
  
After their coupling, Markus had slain her, tearing her throat open and loosing all her taken blood. As she changed back to the human she'd been as she died, he had changed her, at first to make her a pet. As her power had become apparent, though, things had vastly changed. Now they ruled over their own species, and looked to the dark worlds of vampire and werewolf alike for new conquests.  
  
Katherine was one of these. A new breed, she had been changed by the new King and Queen and was now in charge of building their army, changing captured wolves and bloods into the creatures that would replace them. Creatures like the beast between her legs.   
  
She leant back, closing her eyes as the creature's tongue moved inside of her, bringing her to the brink of ecstatic insanity again and again. She shoved his head back and moved to the bed, kneeling down as the wolf slunk into the room gratefully. His cock was already hard and thick, and she morphed, changing into the powerful beast she revelled in.  
  
The young bloodwolf slunk up behind her, and entered her, sliding his thick meat up and inside of her with a whined sigh. Katherine arched her back up as the boy feverishly jerked his cock inside of her. The beast's cock was huge, though not as big as the Packmaster's. Katherine's breath tasted raw in her throat as she imagined it was her Lord dominating her.  
  
The creature pistoning himself in and out of her was thick, as thick as a human wrist, but at the most ten inches long. Katherine's wolf form could easily accommodate him, and she rolled over, whining noisily at the sensation of the cock twisting inside of her. She reached up, slashing the jowls of the wolf's head above her, splattering her face in blood.  
  
The bloodwolf whined but didn't stop thrusting, until finally he gave a quick jerk and howled, and Katherine felt him splatter up inside of her. She wondered idly what it would be like to carry his life in her, and pushed him off her. She shook, and her form crunched and flowed back into her human body. The boy in front of her followed suit, becoming lean and clean of face.  
  
His dark hair and blue eyes attracted her, he was pleasing to her eye, if not her mind, and she had claimed him as hers. The others didn't mind. When she felt the need, her sins were not confined to this one single beast. She walked to the UV glass windows again and stared at the hated, compelling sun. It was one of the few things that could kill a bloodwolf, but it's beauty was entrancing.  
  
There was movement from downstairs as she settled for the day. The Castle housed all the created bloodwolves on the planet, and they were now seeking the cool comfort of the cavern beneath the blue stones. It was a giant den, which satisfied both the needs for space, and absence of sun. Katherine resolved to check on the latest progress of the next batch before retiring.  
  
The boy came up to her and stood beside her. "Your bed awaits, Mistress." She scoffed and turned, not answering him, as she made her way to the small room she kept exclusively for herself. Queen Bethany, as she was now called, had slept in the large four poster bed, when she slept during the day. Katherine used it only for fucking, preferring her own bed in a room adjoining her Queen's.   
  
She shut the door and discarded her red robe, stepping into the bath that the boy had made for her. She really ought to give him a name, she thought idly. She leant back into the cushion and closed her eyes, feeling her body replenishing itself from the meal she had made of the little boy that her pet had caught spying. Little boys should have stayed indoors at night. Luckily though, he had only run to the priest, scared that hell was coming for him.  
  
Katherine smiled as she sunk lower into the boiling water, feeling the forgotten sensation of warmth begin to slowly move through her. She reached down and turned the temperature up, and the bubbles began rising as the water boiled. Her rear began to get pleasantly hot from the red-hot steel as she began to smile to herself, remembering the taste of the child's flesh. Hell had certainly come for him.  
  
******** "Father Connelly?" Mariella pushed the door open to the church slowly, already feeling that something was terribly wrong. She looked over her shoulder to Gabriel, whose senses echoed her feelings. Jack cocked his gun as they moved further into the church, and all three crossed themselves warily.  
  
Mariella moved down the centre of the pews, and Jack and Gabriel darted into the shadows along each wall, moving to cover her. A black cassock moved at the altar, and the figure turned, staring at her. "Father Connelly, please, we've come..."   
  
"Father Connelly is dead." The man knelt down and bowed to her. "We have come to assist you, Sister." He reached up and tore his cassock away, revealing a silver, black and gray uniform, with church insignia on it. He pulled a mask up and over his face, a plain mask without holes and a white crucifix on the centre of his brow, reaching down his face.   
  
Anther figure moved out from the darkness behind Jack, and another, until the room was filled with the holy warriors. Gabriel drew his sword as he stepped into the light, staring at the warriors. They looked for all the world like church ninjas or something akin. They were all heavily armed, both with blades and high-tech firearms. Mariella held her hand up to him and glanced back behind Jack, a sudden warm smile on her face.  
  
Jack froze as the barrel of a gun slid up his back and lodged against the base of his skull. He slowly lifted his hands, then whirled around quickly, batting the barrel out of the way with his elbow and slamming his cocked pistol into the throat of the man behind him.  
  
"You're getting slow, Jack, I never would have gotten the drop on you back in the day." Cardinal Adam Guiteau grinned through his beard and held out his hand. Jack lowered the pistol and shook his head, a wry grin on his face.   
  
"You scared the hell out of me, Padre. How's life in the big building?" Jack and Adam laughed, and clasped hands, genuinely pleased to see one another. The warriors surrounded Mariella, standing at attention behind her. Adam looked past Jack's shoulder at Gabriel, then ducked his head to his friend.  
  
"I'm afraid we'll have to catch up later, my friend." Jack's face sobered and he nodded, and turned back into the room. Adam walked up to Gabriel and bowed. "Gabriel. I'm glad you're all right. I wasn't sure if you'd survive Jack's training." He gave his friend a wry glance and then looked back at Mariella, who was conversing with the warriors. "I suppose I should introduce you."  
  
He spread his hands out wide, and the warriors formed a line and knelt on masse behind Mariella, who moved to Gabriel's side. Adam narrowed his eyes curiously as he watched their hands twitch towards one another. "This is a Holy Contingent from the Knights of Malta. The Inquisitors."  
  
The twelve knights stood up at attention, and Gabriel nodded to himself. "Sure, why not. Holy ninjas, Batman." Jack snorted a laugh behind them, and Adam smiled.   
  
"Since the dawn of the Church herself, the Knights of Malta have trained. They are the foremost warriors against the seeds of darkness in this world, trained to hunt, kill and serve. They serve only the church, and the Magdelena." Gabriel looked at Mariella with wide eyes.  
  
"They're your army?" She shook her head and gestured to the warriors behind her.   
  
"They are holy warriors. If my sisters and I are the lone scouts behind enemy lines, then these are surely the infantry of God." She looked at the warriors and inclined her head to them, acknowledging them as fellow warriors. She looked at Adam and her face hardened. "The father is dead?"  
  
"Killed, Mellie, in what I assume was a measure of protection against the pack being outed and the church contacted," Adam answered tersely. "He was killed needlessly, as his communique had already been sent. We have also ascertained that another was killed, a child. From the communique we believe that it was a young boy who alerted Father Connelly. He was taken this morning, in the early hours of the day, before the sun rose."  
  
Jack cocked his pistol and shrugged himself off the stone walls. "Well lets go in there and get him the fuck out, then." One of the Inquisitors glanced sharply at him.  
  
"Language, Mr. Crowe." Jack and Adam shared a conspiratorial chuckle, and Adam looked at his watch.   
  
"It's only four hours until sundown. We should wait for morning, to give us a full day of sunlight to use." Jack nodded approvingly and Gabriel and Mariella sighed. Adam gestured to the church around them. "There are plenty of beds about. Get some rest. We'll post a watch during the night, and head out at first light."  
  
Jack caught Gabriel's eyes and jerked his head towards the entrance as the remaining party knelt at the altar and began to pray. Gabriel's hand rested on Mariella's shoulder for a moment, and she glanced up at him with a soft smile, then ducked her head and continued to pray. Jack moved them towards the door and gestured to his weapons.   
  
"You'd better make sure they're all clean and ready, kid, because we'll be in the thick of it tomorrow. Game on, first thing, so you don't want to be jerkin' around with your weapons. You got it?" Gabriel nodded as they stepped out into the afternoon sun and went for their packs. Several people glanced curiously at them from windows of cars or the surrounding buildings, but nobody moved to stop them.   
  
They pushed inside, and Gabriel moved up into the higher reaches of the church, into the attic. He looked around at the dusty room and the small mattress at the base of a window, and threw his and Mariella's packs down beside the mattress, and pushed out one of the stained glass windows.   
  
The metal squeaked in protest, and a small bit of dust stirred up as he looked at the sinking sun. Far in the distance, he could see a shadowy castle, like something out of a Dracula novel. He leant on the windowsill, breathing in the scent of the country air.  
  
A scent of roses came to him, and he turned and smiled as Mariella knelt down beside her pack. "We should sleep well, we'll be in hell tomorrow." Gabriel smiled to himself as she matter-of-factly began laying out enough weapons to lay siege to Congress. They cleaned and sharpened their weapons in silence, happy enough in one another's company. They hung up their sheathes, holsters and scabbards next to the window and sat down on the floor.   
  
Mariella laid down on top of Gabriel, and he put his arms around her shoulders. Their hands linked up, and Mariella smiled to herself. They sat in silence for a while longer. "Tell me what it was like to grow up in the world?" Gabriel shifted under her and tilted his head to side, curiously.  
  
"It was just a normal life, growing up. Well, it was on the streets, but that's just... you know, normal for a lot of kids." Mariella didn't move, but her hands squeezed his gently.   
  
"Please." There was something vulnerable about her tone, so Gabriel shifted up and put his arms further around her, and she snuggled into his embrace.  
  
"Okay." Her breathing slowed as he began to speak, and her head twisted to the side. She rolled over and laid her body out along his, nestling into the crook of his neck with her silken hair. "I grew up in Saint Michel's Orphanage, in New York." A slow smile spread his lips. "I was a shit of a kid, I guess. I got into mischief fairly regularly. I loved to fight. I didn't get along well with the other kids who thought they were in charge."  
  
Gabriel thought back to his days, running around the orphanage, carefree and ignorant. "I was best friends with a kid named Dalton. Dalton Washington Jnr. He was big, a lot bigger than me. But he wasn't smart. Not that I'm a genius. But he used to struggle with school. Any classes, he needed a friend. At first..." He grinned and shrugged.  
  
"At first, I thought it'd be good to have a big friend, who'd stick up for you, so I stuck up for him, got him onside with me. But then, I got to like him. He was a good kid, you know. Soon, we were inseparable. There wasn't a single thing that went on in that orphanage that we didn't have our sticky little fingers in. The girls hung around us because we managed to come out on top of every fight we ever got into."  
  
"We stole to survive on top. Locks aren't that difficult when they're between you and food or money you think you need. So we learnt. And we got bigger. Neither one of us got adopted, on account of we were such big pains in the ass. When he turned 18, he told me to look him up. He got turned out to the streets, to fend for himself. I turned 18 about three months later, and went to look him up."  
  
A dark look crossed Gabriel's features, and Mariella looked up at him and touched his chin, but his eyes were far away. "I guess I learnt my first life lesson then. Three months is a lifetime on the streets. When I finally caught up with him, Dalton was a shadow. He'd wasted away. What brains he did have were gone, wasted away on that fucking shit they pump up your arm to forget your troubles."  
  
"We had a big scrap right there in the street. I remember hitting him, and then remember him falling. His head bounced off the concrete like a PINYATA. He bled out over my hands and begged me to help him. He'd smashed two ribs and given me a lovely blood nose and a shiner, but some part of him still knew I was his friend."  
  
"He died and I took over. I lived on those streets, trying to find the money to live from one meal to the next, and then you came." Mariella reached up and kissed him tenderly, and slid her hand over his neck to his shoulder, and hugged him. "What about you?" Mariella stayed silent for a while, then stirred again.  
  
"I was raised by the church. My mother was the Magdelena, Rosalia was her name. I was born when she was very young, and I know she loved me, but every time she looked at me, I could see pain in her eyes. I never knew why. I was trained, ever since I could walk, to take on the responsibilities of the Magdelena. It's something you accept, but you can't quite conceive of. You're being trained for the day your mother dies."  
  
Gabriel frowned and shook his head minutes as she continued. "And, as always happens, that day came. Cardinal Innocent came to me, and sent me off to slay the Darkness." She shrugged against him. "I failed. I wasn't ready. The Knights of Malta tried as hard as they could to ready me, and for all intents and purposes I was ready. But I couldn't defeat him." She opened her gloved hands and stared at her palms for a while, then flinched and shuddered in his arms.  
  
"I survived that failure, and then another, after that. I met with many people, strange beings that looked no stranger to me than my own reflection. I fought some, fought alongside some, and then Cardinal Guiteau called upon me. He'd come from Rome, where unearthed Scriptures told of a Nephalym that would defend against a joined threat of blood and beast."  
  
Gabriel smiled falsely and squeezed her in his arms. "My whole life I've been the Magdelena. I never knew the peace and happiness I might find as Mariella." Her voice was soft as she raised her face to his for another tender kiss. Gabriel pulled her into his arms and kissed her fully, the kiss deepening as they moved against one another.  
  
Mariella slowly let her hand drop to her top and began to lift it over her head. Their kisses didn't cease as they shed their clothes, and Gabriel lifted her to straddle him as he leant against the wall. Their naked bodies looked perfect together to Gabriel, her pale perfection, his chiselled form. Her muscles were her work, her training, but her body looked crafted from God himself.   
  
He couldn't stop kissing her, and didn't want to either. He could taste a succulent elixir on her lips, and it tasted like heaven to him as their arms moved around one another. Mariella arched up in his lap and reached beneath them, and Gabriel felt her grip her gently, pointing his hard cock upwards towards her. She sank back down onto him lightly, and closed her eyes, biting her lip.   
  
He entered her shallowly, but it wasn't the deepness that drove him to that heated ecstasy, it was the sensations she brought out in him. The heaving warmth of her breasts pressed against his chest, the hot tickle of her breath against his cheek and neck, the wetness pressing against his dark curled hairs. Mariella rocked further down onto him and spread her legs around them, circling his waist in her thighs.   
  
Mariella's dark brown hair cascaded down her sculpted shoulder as she moved on top of him slowly, feeling Gabriel's length easing up and into her with a slow, steady rhythm. Each rocked thrust rubbed their hips together, and Mariella's eyes closed as she pressed herself closer to her lover. Gabriel opened his mouth, capturing her nipple as she rocked up against him.   
  
She gave a soft moan as he nibbled at her gently, and squeezed him deep inside of her. Gabriel gave a ragged sigh and a grunt as she smiled contentedly, her face covered by her hair. Mariella leant back, her breasts heaving as she began to pant deeply, her arms stretched around Gabriel's neck. She ground herself down onto him, shuddering around him and quivering in his arms.  
  
Gabriel tightened his grip on her and brought her back up as he ran his open mouth up her body, tasting her sweat and the intoxicating scent that was simply her own. Their mouths met and they kissed feverishly, trying to devour one another. Mariella gasped for breath against his open mouth and enfolded him in her arms tightly as she tensed and suddenly bit her lip again to keep from crying out.

They held one another for several heartbeats until the tenseness slid out of Mariella and she raised her head limply to kiss at him. She opened her deep eyes and watched him, a slow, conspiratorial smile spreading her face. She leant back, pulling him down on top of her and giving light, hissed gasps as he moved inside of her as he laid down on top of her. Her hands moved across his back, under his arms, and Gabriel began to slowly arch his hips against her, driving himself into her heat.  
  
Mariella sighed deeply as he arched into her, twisting beneath him as he pushed against her. He could feel himself tensing each time as she gripped him deep inside, and her breath against his face and her quiet moans spurred him on. Mariella shuddered against him again, and her thighs moved with his, snaking around his tensed calves like vines as they made love.  
  
The back of her knees pressed up against his hips and urged him on as Gabriel came closer and closer, until finally he gripped her shoulders and burst deep inside of her, feeling as though he were emptying himself into her. He jerked his hips back out of her and collapsed into her arms, falling limp across her body. Mariella's chest heaved as quickly as his as they moved to lie beside one another.   
  
The wind from the open window carried the night's frost on it, and Mariella snuggled deeper into the arch of his body, feeling his intense body heat warming her slightly. Gabriel reached up and pulled free his robe and dragged it over their bodies as their sweat cooled them quickly. Mariella watched as he reached up and pulled the window closed a little, until only the slightest cold came through, bringing with it the fresh air of night.  
  
Mariella's breathing slowed down and her heaving chest grew calm as Gabriel covered her in his robe. She sleepily rolled over and watched him as he slipped in pants back on and stood up, his bare chest pale in the moonlight. He knelt down over her and kissed her softly. "I'm going to get some air. I can't sleep, not yet." She nodded to him and touched his face as he kissed her again. He reared back and smiled softly. "I do love you, Mariella. I do."   
  
A wide, intense smile crossed her features, and Gabriel brushed her hair out of her eyes as she rolled back over and nestled further into his robes. Gabriel backed away and moved down the steps. Jack rolled over and eyed him suspiciously for a second as he reached the bottom steps and then nodded to him as he inclined his head to the slayer. Jack gave a grumble and rolled back over in his makeshift bed.  
  
Gabriel nodded in acknowledgment to the Inquisitor keeping a watchful eye on the surrounding grounds as he moved out to the cold night air through the front doors. Goosebumps rose on his skin as the crisp air surrounded him, and Gabriel sniffed and sighed, leaning on the balcony railing. He stared out over the hill, but couldn't see the castle from the lower vantage point.   
  
"You have a strange idea of getting some rest, my son." Adam moved out of the darkness, and Gabriel glanced at him once.   
  
"Finding solace in the arms of the woman I love isn't peace?" Adam's eyes widened slightly, and he blushed and gave an embarrassed laugh.   
  
"I meant wandering out late at night." Gabriel felt his own skin darken, and ducked his head.  
  
"Sorry, Cardinal. Forgive me." Adam shrugged and leant on the railing beside him.  
  
"As her teacher and guiding Cardinal, I am to tell her that her only love must be God, and her only passion his mission. As her friend, I hope she finds happiness in whatever form it comes to her. The life of the Magdelena isn't one of friends and warmth. They're born, they train, they fight, they die. If you make her smile, that is all I ask. And you most definitely make her happy."   
  
Gabriel cleared his throat and glanced back at Adam. The Cardinal had a saintly expression of peace on his ruined face, as he stared out at the same, looking at the beauty of the night with his one good eye. "Jack taught you the gun, and Mariella has taught you the blade. I'm gathering that you wish to know who can teach you about the other part of your nature."  
  
Gabriel nodded. "Don't know too many angels, do you, Adam?" He smiled and shook his head.  
  
"Only the one upstairs. And she's angelic, but no angel. Much like you, only your blood is as holy as hers." He sighed and nodded to himself, closing his eyes. "Lo, the angelfire shall burn within him, though he wouldst not knoweth its power. His soul shall be of the Gharreck, and Michael shall guide his spirit. His companion shall be of the blessed line of the Magdelene, and his holy task to battle those of enjoined blood and teeth."  
  
Gabriel scoffed. "Pretty straight forwards for a prophecy, isn't it?" Adam shrugged and smiled.  
  
"Sometimes it's a blessing, that you get these things so straight forward. We figured companion to mean something quite different, however." Gabriel scoffed again and then fell silent. He looked up at the roof, and the opened window at which Mariella lay at the foot of, fast asleep.  
  
"Cardinal. We're not married." Adam nodded solemnly.  
  
"You're not my type, but I'm flattered." Gabriel scoffed and choked off a laugh.   
  
"Mariella and me, I mean. We're not married." Adam put his hand on Gabriel's shoulder.   
  
"Do you love her?" Gabriel rose up straight and looked Adam right in the eye.  
  
"More than breath." Adam squeezed his shoulder and nodded to him slightly, then patted him and leant back down onto the railing again.  
  
"The Magdelena is trained from birth to love only God, and have passion only for the holy mission which He has gifted her. Mariella's mother was raped by her father at a very young age. For a long time, the Church simply accepted this as part of the will of God, the continuation of the Magdelene line. The Magdelena avenges such deeds, but in her case, they are accepted." His fingers whitened in the pale blue moonlight as he thought about it for a moment.  
  
"She would never marry. And she would never know the joy of sleeping in another's arms if it weren't for you. I won't be the one to keep you apart. I can always plead ignorance." He gave a wry smile and waved indirectly at his face. "Blindness, perhaps." Gabriel reached out and put his hand on the Cardinal's shoulder, his expression grateful. Adam shrugged it away and pulled a rosary out of his pocket, and began to fidget with the cross.  
  
"You're what's known as an angelic avatar, Gabriel. When you die, whenever that may be, you'll pass up into Heaven and be one with God and our Lord Christ. Though I am sure I would be corrected by my more obsessive brethren, I don't think it's our place to tell you who and what you may feel for, and how or why you should go about it."   
  
"Now," he said tersely, straightening up and putting his hands behind his back. "I've poured over that prophecy and any other Scriptures mentioning it, even in passing. All I can tell you about your angelic nature is that your angelfire will be the greatest weapon against the corrupted. That is, werewolves and vampires."   
  
Gabriel took a deep breath and opened his hands wide, then closed them again. "And what about these things? They're not either, are they, they're both?" Adam nodded and echoed Gabriel's sigh.  
  
"The Bloodwolves. God only knows the limits of their powers. We captured one, and found out at least several things which can hurt it. But so far, only beheading and sunlight kills them. Which worries me, because this creature regenerated from our attempts to give him a merciful end. His spine held his head and skull on, it was as thick as a bread plate is wide."  
  
He shook his head and looked up at Gabriel. "Your powers will be there for you tomorrow, Gabriel. It is a matter of faith."   
  
"And what if I don't believe? What if I don't have faith?"   
  
"Lehane, I speak not of your faith in your powers, I speak of your faith in your destiny." Gabriel sighed and turned away.   
  
"And what if I don't have that, either?" Adam didn't answer as Gabriel walked away and shut the door behind him. He stepped lightly past Jack's sleeping form, and moved up the stairs, back into the attic. Mariella was breathing steadily as he slipped down next to her and put his arms around her gently. She sighed contentedly and Gabriel lowered his head to nestle into her hair. The next thing he knew, one of the Inquisitors was shaking him awake as the sky was brightening.  
  
********  
  
Katherine and her pet bowed low to the ground, prostrating themselves in front of the UV windows that looked out into the dark night. The air seeped into the windows, cold and biting, but none of the creatures noticed it. Bethany waved her hand, and the two stood up, though still bowed low in respect. Markus strode forwards and tilted the young bloodwolf's unbearded chin up and looked into his eyes.   
  
"What has happened in our absence?" The boy's eyes darted to Katherine, unsure of whether or not to answer, and Markus lashed out at him, slicing his jaw and loosing several teeth under the pressure of his closed fist. "Insufferable idiot!" he raged, standing over the prone boy. "I am your Packmaster, you will answer when I speak to you!" Katherine looked at Bethany, who watched with an expression of smug power.   
  
Such a brute, forceful display made Katherine's heart beat rapidly; feeling lust pushing along her veins as her pet was violently dominated. Bethany glanced at her and a wide, lustful smile spread across her features as her mate asserted his authority over the subordinate. The beating stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and Markus turned back to Bethany, and sat by her side.   
  
"What has happened in our absence?" he asked Katherine, his tone normal and unhurried. Katherine attempted to control her lust as she locked eyes with her sire, who gestured to the remains of the child who had taken the photos and run to the priest. The small carcass was torn and ripped, sitting beside the throne erected for the Packmaster and his queen. The body was still fresh enough from the night before to still taste the boy's fear.  
  
"We were found by a child, who ran to a priest to spill his tale, but we silenced them both." Markus and Bethany exchanged glances and then Katherine cleared her throat. "The boy was a meal, but the priest I turned myself, sires. I thought the irony would please you." Markus nodded, a sneer on his face as Bethany laughed softly, running her hands up and down her chest. Katherine cleared her throat again and prostrated herself before her Packmaster.  
  
"My sire, your army is greater than any which have taken the lands before you. We number nearly two hundred, Packmaster, and we hunger for blood and battle. We hunger for you to lead us out against the world and loose us to burn it down." Markus gave her a hungry leer and glanced at Bethany, who smiled.   
  
"You've done well, Katherine." She ducked her head low at her Queen's praise. "You are to be rewarded." A hollow light lit Katherine's eyes, echoed by the lights springing up in the eyes of Markus and Bethany. "What else do you desire?" Katherine dared to lift her head up further and stared at the prone figures of her sires.  
  
"To... I hunger for the honour of your pleasures again, my sires." Markus snorted a laugh and rubbed his crotch suggestively.   
  
"Then begin, Katherine." She slunk forwards and nestled her head between Bethany's thighs, pushing her tongue up the living marble and tasting her queen's cold centre with relish. Markus and the pet began to stroke themselves as Katherine ate her queen, and Bethany sighed in pleasure. They moved to the bed and the pet lay down on the bed, ready to please his master and mistresses.   
  
Bethany straddled the pet and rubbed her pussy against his face as she jerked his cock. His hands moved to grip her hips, but she slid down his body, rubbing her pussy along his torso until she came to his cock, arched up and slid him inside of her with a guiding hand. Katherine mirrored her action, squatting over the pet's face and playing with herself as he began to lick her.  
  
Markus stroked his cock as Katherine stared at him, and moved around to her, spreading his feet to the sides of the pet's prone body and hitting her in the face with his cock, teasing her as she kissed at his head, trying to suck him. He moved further around, until he came to Bethany. He leant down and kissed her, then reached out and held her steady on the pets cock as he moved his hips and his jutting cock to her face.   
  
Markus fed his cock to Bethany as she bounced up and down onto the pet's cock, then pushed her back and spread her legs wide, aiming his cock for her pussy. He drove himself into his paramour as she shook, feeling herself spread and fill with the cocks inside of her. Katherine reached over Markus's back and began to play with his nipples, rubbing her body against his back and playing with herself with her other hand.   
  
The boy's face twisted in exquisite torture as Bethany thrust her breasts up towards Katherine's hands and began to shriek as she came hard. Her hole exploded in cum as Markus pounded his thick meat into her. The pet gave a howl as his cock sped up and Bethany clenched down hard on him as she crested her wave again and went limp as he fucked himself into cumming.   
  
She shoved off of him as his cock exploded, blasting cum into the air and over his cock and balls. Katherine darted around and began to clean his cock, savouring his cum as Bethany raked her Packmaster's chest, feeling her claws morphing out as she slashed at him. Markus pulled out as Bethany sank to her knees and clutched at his cock, squeezing it and not letting him cum.  
  
Katherine eased herself down onto her pet's cock and began to rub their bodies together, smearing his cum over them. Markus sneered at Bethany as she watched him lustfully and moved over their heads, fingering herself as she sat down onto Katherine's face. Her breathing sped up as Markus sneered again and pushed himself against Katherine's dry asshole.   
  
Katherine gave a pained cry and reached back, spreading herself wider for his cock, and Markus dug his claws into the small of her back, puncturing the flesh and dragging her back onto him with forceful jerks. The pet beneath her grunted in time with his thrusts, as the double penetration spread Katherine wide and made her limp with the intensity of sensation.  
  
Bethany's face was twisted in lustful, sinful ecstasy as she played with her nipples. The boy and Katherine kept fucking, but twisted their heads up to feverishly lick at Bethany's pussy and ass. Markus slid himself deeper into Katherine's ass, feeling the length of the boy's cock thrusting along her hole, felt the boy's smaller cock stretching Katherine wide against the membrane between her ass and her pussy hole.   
  
The boy started to jerk quickly against his sire and gave a final jerked heave and filled her pussy with his cum. Katherine smiled against Bethany's pussy and shoved the boy down her body with a free hand, until he lapped at her swollen pussy, tonguing himself out of her. Markus stared up their bodies as Katherine feverishly tongued Bethany, feeling her pet's cum sliding out of her slowly.   
  
He could feel the boy's head between Katherine's legs, suckling at her pussy as he pounded himself deeply into her asshole. Bethany was viscously twisting her nipples, her dark nails dragging across the engorged buds as Katherine shrieked in pleasure at the violent assault on her pussy and ass. Her tongue moved against Bethany's clit and wriggled against it, making Bethany scream as she came hard, gushing her cum into Katherine's face.   
  
Markus couldn't hold back at the sight, and began to fill Katherine's hole with his thick cum. The Packmaster gave a loud bellow as he began to cum, and felt his meat thicken as he began to spew the thick ropes deep into her bowels. The boy suckling at Katherine's pussy opened his mouth wider as the Packmaster's cum slid down into her pussy, and then into his mouth.   
  
Markus grabbed the back of the boy's head and shoved his face deeply into Katherine's asshole, making him tongue his Packmaster's cum from his sire's dirty hole. The boy seemed to relish it, driving himself against Katherine and making her shudder in delight at the feel of his rimming tongue. Markus nodded to Bethany and the two of them stood up and began to clothe themselves.  
  
Katherine reached down between her legs and frantically rubbed herself, until the sensations of her fingers and her pet's tongue drove her over the edge and she came, hard. She collapsed onto the ground with a sigh. The boy leant back and looked to Markus, his eyes bright and hungry still. Markus pulled his shirt over his head and grabbed Bethany's arm.   
  
"We'll sleep alone tonight. The night is ending, and we would be apart from this place." Katherine barely noticed, but nodded in complete subservience. The two pack leaders moved down through the Castle and out onto the grounds. The sky was beginning to lighten, and Markus spied the church far in the distance. Something was bothering him, and Bethany could feel it too. She touched his arm, but he shrugged her off and began to move out into the country.   
  
They came to a small rise, barely a hill, overgrown and isolated. Markus lifted a bush and scraped away at the ground, and Bethany followed, clawing out holes deep enough for them to lay in. the sun moved closer to the horizon in the distance, and Markus felt his skin beginning to prickle at the hated warmth.   
  
They clawed their way down and dragged the earth over the top of them, burying themselves next to one another. Soon, they were deep enough so that the sunlight could not reach them, and stilled into restful poses. There was silence for a moment, and then Bethany's thoughts reached out to her paramour's.  
  
"Were we not even to warn them?" Markus held his silence for a long while, then the earth around them shifted as he shrugged.   
  
"They've served their purpose. We can make more, now. We can create other, stronger bloodwolves, those loyal to Katherine will die tonight, and we shall make our own race, and in turn, rise from the ashes of Castle Della Nostrum." Bethany didn't blink, unfazed about the destruction of her old house.  
  
"The church sends her holy warriors against us, Bethany. This means they are scared. It will take them days to hack through the castle's legion, and if they even survive, then they will not know about us. We can finish them off with little difficulty. The Inquisitors. Hah. They slew my sire, long, long ago." His thoughts grew silent and Bethany opened her eyes in the darkness of her burrow, and took a long breath of the dank, soil-tinged air.  
  
"Lover, I'm with child. I feel it's small heart beating within my belly." There was stilled silence, and then the earth moved between them, and Markus's clawed hand punched through the earth and gripped hers. His thoughts rung with pride and dark joy.  
  
"The first of a new breed, then. I'd wondered if our kind kept the birthing from our dogged brethren." A low laugh came through the earth to Bethany's ears as she ran her fingers over her stomach and gripped Markus's hand lovingly. "Our army will be destroyed when we wake. We need to regroup."  
  
"Perhaps if we turn enough bloods, my Lord, we'll simply turn the world and forgo any war. Either they join us, or we kill them. It seems well enough a matter to me." Markus gave the mental equivalent of a grunt. "And what of these new soldiers?" she wondered.   
  
" In time, lover. No doubt some or all of their comrades will fall in their idiotic mission. Let them mourn. Their resolve, should they even survive, will be either immeasurably weakened or strengthed. Weakened resolve will lead to indecision and doubt, which we will use to kill them. Strengthened resolve will lead to hatred and hubris, which we will use to kill them. Either path we can deal with."

"As you say, my Lord." There was silence for a moment, and their joined thoughts held until images and ponderings came across from Markus.  
  
"When will the child be born?" Bethany ran her hands back and forth over her still-slim belly, trying to feel the life of the child within her. Her hand thrummed with the child's heartbeat, and she squeezed Markus's hand.  
  
"I have never been a mother. And I'll wager there has never been a child such as this." Markus didn't respond, and Bethany closed her eyes again, feeling the drowsiness of sleep coming to her as the sun began to heat up the earth around them. Markus's voice was quiet in her thoughts.   
  
"The world will be his cradle."  
  
********  
  
The sixteen warriors strode up the hill, armed to the teeth. Jack and Adam walked in front, the others all wore the cloaking robes of their orders. They crested the hill and didn't stop as they walked purposefully down the hill towards the Castle Della Nostrum. The sun wasn't yet up, but it would only be minutes. Gabriel felt his heart beating fast, and his head began to throb as he stared at the door.  
  
They stood in silence as Adam blessed them quietly, and Jack cocked his gun and made sure his machete was loose in its sheath. Gabriel's breath was hot in his throat, and something sparked up and down his spine, like someone was running a tiny taser along his vertebrae. His hands started to shake, and Jack stepped up beside him as the Inquisitors pulled out their own blades.  
  
Gabriel looked at Mariella and smiled softly as his eyes started to change colour. "I love you, Mariella." She didn't turn, but Jack scoffed and put his hand on Gabriel's shoulder and called his name. Gabriel didn't answer, just stared at the door, feeling things changing within him, moving inside of him as he felt himself getting stronger. His eyes changed first, and his hands started to burn hotly. Jack shook his shoulder again urgently.  
  
"Kid, what's going on?" Gabriel stared at the door and a slow smile moved across his face. He stretched out his hand and then clenched it into a fist. Mariella turned to him and gasped, her hand going to her mouth as she whispered a prayer. Jack stepped around in front of Gabriel, and clawed his sunglasses off, staring at Gabriel in awe.  
  
Gabriel's eyes were completely blue, and were actually letting out blue smoke, as though his eyes themselves were evaporating. He tilted his head to the side as the Inquisitor Warriors moved up behind him. Adam crossed himself and adjusted his dark vest as the Inquisitors knelt behind Gabriel. He extended his hand and blue flames slowly licked up his skin, until his hands burnt brightly.   
  
He flexed his fingers wide and his smile widened. "They know we're here. They're expecting us. But they don't know." Mariella drew a sword and Jack pulled another gun from his waistband.   
  
"Gabriel?" Jack nervously looked back at Adam, who didn't blink, but instead waited calmly. "Gabe, c'mon, kid, what don't they know?" It held there for a moment, until Gabriel drew his sword, and the blue flames quickly flickered along the blade, and Gabriel pulled his hood up over his head.   
  
"They don't know that they're all going to die."  
  
With that he kicked open the door and let loose a blast of blue fire straight down the corridor, letting out a roar of battle rage. He took off at a run, into the darkness, and the others ran after him. Gabriel felt himself moving through the corridors, smashing away or blasting the dark wolves that reached out for him. He could feel the greatest numbers of them down below, and headed down that way.  
  
They leapt at him, but bloodlust had hold of him, and Gabriel welcomed them with blasts of white-hot flame from his hands or scything slashes of his sword. He breathed evenly, but felt himself smiling as he destroyed the creatures in biblical proportions. He came to some steps, and four of the creatures met him there.   
  
He didn't even slow down, whirling around and booting one of the creatures back into the wall and shoving his hand up into its throat, blasting the head apart with his blue fire. His sword swung around and took the head of another, and he felt himself being lifted off the ground as one of the creatures grabbed him from behind.   
  
Gabriel's hand burnt brighter still as he punched down, feeling the cold, dark heart in the creature's chest as he burnt through its flesh. The bloodwolf howled, then disintegrated, falling apart in charred remains. Gabriel turned to the last, who reeked of fear. Gabriel tilted his head and smiled, and the wolf turned to run, but his sword burst through its chest, and the creature died.  
  
Gabriel ran down the steps, feeling himself eagerly waiting for more kills, and spotted more of the creatures clawing their way up the steps. His smile was drunken and wide as he tumbled down and kicked out, his sword flicking through the throats of the wolves as they moved to claw him on the way past.   
  
He rolled into the cavern and gave another screaming laugh as he reached his hand up, setting the stone roof ablaze with angelfire. There were dozens of bloodwolves in here, and they each sat up and began to growl hungrily. Gabriel began to laugh as he swung his sword around and leapt towards the nearest.  
  
Mariella ran through the torchlit corridors, her sword in one hand and the Spear of Destiny in the other. The Spear glowed in the dark light, and Adam and Jack stalked through behind her, trying to catch up with Gabriel, but trying not to run into a trap as well. The Inquisitors fanned out behind them, warily running through the darkness and into the rooms they passed, checking to make sure they were clear.  
  
The Magdelena moved through the darkness comfortably, her sense of danger not warning her in the least. Gabriel had killed everything in his path, the path she now followed quickly. They came to some steps, and Mariella started down them quickly, while Adam and Jack exchanged glances at the death and destruction that Gabriel had brought to the Castle.   
  
"What is he, Padre?" Adam scoffed as he started down the steps, Jack close at his heels. The Inquisitors moved behind them silently, efficiently checking the bloodwolves were dead. Even those silent warriors were a bit taken aback by the cold destruction that Gabriel had brought down on the Castle, though they didn't show it in anything more than quick glances between them.  
  
Adam grabbed a torch off the wall and Jack drew his machete from his hip holster as they kept going down the steps, slick with blood. "He's half angel, Jack. His angelic side is coming out, now, when it's needed." Jack's lip curled up and he shook his head helplessly. Adam pointed down the steps to where Mariella had stopped, her Spear and sword slack in her hands as she stared out at the cavern.  
  
"What, Jack? You believe in vampires and werewolves, but not angels?" Jack didn't answer as Adam pulled a shotgun from out of his robes. They reached the bottom of the steps, and Mariella took a shallow breath.   
  
"He is Death." Her simple tone belied the incredible scene before them. Over a hundred of the creatures were strewn out on the cavern floor. The blue light across the ceiling of the cavern was fading slowly, and the blood and gore across the stone looked black. The last of the Inquisitors caught up with them, and they began to move out into the cavern.   
  
The sounds of battle were coming closer, and the holy warriors began to fan out, checking that the creatures were all dead. Some were not as dead as the others, and began to move out, trying to attack. The Inquisitors were only human, but had been preparing and training to battle creatures of the dark since birth. As the battle began to rage, more and more of the faithful warriors began to fall, and Mariella fought hard to keep the creatures from overwhelming them.  
  
More and more of the beasts came to them, and then Mariella gave a shout as Gabriel came back around the corner of the cave, running down and killing more of the bloodwolves. They ran from him in terror, some in human form and others in wolven. He ran them down and killed them all. The Magdelena shouted a call to her Lord Christ and moved to attack the creatures as Adam and Jack began to shoot into the mass of fur and teeth.  
  
Gabriel roared in a berserker rage as he swung his sword, feeling it flow around him almost in a dance, as though it were merely a part of him. The creatures slashed and bit, but nothing touched him. He could feel the creature's fear, their terror overwhelming their hunger and rage. It wasn't Gabriel Lehane that moved through them like a bladed wind, it was someone else. SomeTHING else.  
  
The last of the creatures backed away, caught between certain death with Gabriel's sword and fire, and Mariella's Spear and sword. The Inquisitors flowed out around them, surrounding the group. Gabriel didn't pause for a moment. No witty banter, no clever quips, no offers of surrender. He moved into the clustered, frightened bloodwolves, his sword never stopping for a moment.   
  
Mariella followed suit, until the last died, impaled through the back of the throat by the Spear of Destiny and beheaded by the Sword of the Archangel. There was a sudden silence in the cavern, and Gabriel's blue eyes shifted into the darkness, still searching. "There are more." His voice was deep and calm, and Adam stepped forwards.   
  
"We'll clean them out of here. You've got to find the leader, this Packmaster. You've got to find him." Gabriel turned to Mariella, and the two shared a nod then moved back up the stairs. Jack let out a long whistle and took a breath. Torches switched on as the fire above them faded completely, and several relieved whines sounded from around the cave.  
  
The Inquisitors attached torches to crossbow arms and rifle barrels, and Adam nodded to them. They formed a line, searching high and low for more. Eight of the Inquisitors had fallen in the battle so far, but Jack, Adam, and the remaining four moved through the darkened cavern. The sudden silence fell down on the six church warriors like a blanket.  
  
A roar sounded, then was cut short by an Inquisitor's blade. A barrage of Jack's gun's put another down, and then his machete ended it completely. One creature leapt down from an overhanging rock, slashing away the life of one of the Inquisitors, then leapt for another but was cut in half by a ready blade. The top half crawled in hatred towards Jack, but Adam stepped on it's back and put his shotgun to the back of it's head and pulled the trigger.  
  
Jack gave his machete a shake and sighed, nodding to Adam as the two of them kept going through the darkness. Another of the Inquisitors when down as a wolf rose up behind him, biting his neck and ripping the flesh out hungrily. Jack and Adam gave echoing shouts and fired, putting the creature down. The last two Inquisitors slashed the creature apart as Jack and Adam reloaded. Another roar sounded and there was only one Inquisitor left.   
  
The three warriors backed up, to one another and Jack nodded to the cavern steps, leading back up to the castle. Adam nodded and the Inquisitor pulled off his mask. He was a young boy, barely a shadow of hair on his jaw, though no fear showed in his eyes. Adam reached down and picked up a fallen Inquisistor's sword, and Jack followed suit as they edged back to the door.   
  
There was movement to the young Inquisitor's side and he let a barrage of gunfire out, putting down a moving corpse of one of his fallen brothers. Jack swore as another began to move, and leant down to slice through the neck, even as it grew more muscular and began to sprout dark fur. As soon as he'd leant down though, something leapt over him, barely brushing his back, and there was a wet ripping sound.  
  
Adam turned and grabbed at Jack, who stood up unhurt, and they both glanced at the young boy. His neck was a bloody stump, and his body slowly crumpled under it's own weight, falling to the stone at their feet. Jack backed up and he and Adam stood side by side as they crab-walked towards the steps, barely a dozen feet away.   
  
"It might not have been such a hot idea, comin' in here without the big guns as back-up, eh Padre?" Adam gave a short bark of laughter, which echoed in the dark cavern.   
  
"You ARE the big gun, Jack. I might have been out of the game for a while, but you were born a Slayer. It's who you are." Jack scoffed and narrowed his eyes as they got closer and closer to the steps. "It's good to see you back in the game though, Jack, I..."  
  
Cardinal Adam Guiteau never finished his sentence. Jack hit the ground as Adam's body slumped down onto him, knocking him off balance. Adam's chest was torn apart, his heart a bloody mess, and Jack swore and raised his eyes and his flashlight, his expression pained as a large creature stood up to its full height, staring down at Jack with bright red eyes.   
  
Jack fumbled below him for a second, grabbing his friend's shotgun and pulling it up as the creature stared at Jack, a slow smile spreading it's maw. Finally it gave a sigh and the smile widened as the beast tilted it's head. "Hello, Jack. My dick's working just fine." Jack's expression slid off his face as the beast began to change back to a human form.  
  
"Jesus Christ." The figure in the dark laughed harshly.  
  
"More teeth, less religion, Jack. Though you could say we've both been reborn." Jack raised the shotgun, but couldn't fire, and lowered it, then raised it again. His expression was torn, until finally he dropped the gun to the ground.   
  
"Montoya." He was leaner, and had a different look in his dark eyes, but there was no mistaking who he was. His second in charge on the last mission he'd gone on with a team of slayers. His best friend since either of them could remember. The man who had covered his back for two days, despite being bit by a vampire. The one sucker that Jack had never had the heart to hunt down and destroy.  
  
Montoya held his hands out wide. "Bingo, partner."  
  
**********  
  
Gabriel sheathed his sword as they moved up into the Castle, and Mariella brandished only her Spear. They moved quickly, as the monsters had for the most part been confined on the lower levels. Blood covered them, though none of it was theirs. Their robes were in tatters, and Gabriel had a long scratch along his right gauntlet from where he had punched straight through a gaping jaw.   
  
They came to a large room, with huge glass windows. Mariella frowned as she touched the glass, and looked back at Gabriel, whose blue covered eyes searched everywhere. He glanced at her, and then at the glass, as he turned back and touched a strange device, which looked to be some sort of torture machine like a stretching rack. He kicked the pile of ashes on the ground and nodded in understanding.  
  
"A killing room, for vampires." Mariella nodded in sudden comprehension.   
  
"Or bloodwolves that do not develop properly." They moved to the next room, obviously living quarters. The glass was different here, thicker, and with a tint to it that Mariella ran her fingers across. "UV shielding. So they can watch the sun. Or see out during the day. This must be where the boy took those photos from."  
  
Gabriel sighed as he knelt down in front of a makeshift throne. The chair smelt of blood and sex, and moisture still darkened the fabric at the front of the cushion. Gabriel gripped the small, terrified head of a young boy and closed his eyes. It was difficult, as the muscles were stiff to move. "The photos that killed him." Mariella turned and gasped as Gabriel stood, moving through the room purposefully.  
  
She knelt at the boy's remains and began to pray as Gabriel slunk through the room towards the bed. There was a single figure in it, a young man in his early twenties. He was breathing slowly, his face content and peaceful, though his mouth was surrounded in blood. Gabriel felt his rage building, and drew his sword with the long, slow hiss of leather and steel.  
  
He waited, and tapped the lad on the leg with his sword. The holy metal burnt his skin, and the lad leapt out of bed, naked and confused. His eyes locked onto Gabriel's, and he sneered. "You have no idea what I am, you fucking idiot." Gabriel watched him change impassively, then rolled his head around on his shoulders and fixed the creature with a glare.  
  
"You're dead," he said matter-of-factly, and sheathed his sword. The boy began to laugh and then coughed and shuddered as the head of Mariella's Spear burst through his chest. She ripped it back out of him and the boy blinked and fell to one knee, trying to stem the blood that was pouring out of his chest and back. He turned around, staring at Mariella pleadingly, but the Magdelena's tears flowed down her face as she stared at him in hatred.  
  
Gabriel walked around and lifted the beast's chin up with the tip of his sword. "You are more than an abomination of flesh. You are a corruption of the soul. You are more evil than a thousand of man's sins." The young bloodwolf growled and surged to his feet, but Gabriel slashed his sword across and then brought it straight down along the beast's body.  
  
The young bloodwolf took a step, one clawed paw held out as his head fell behind him, splitting in two, and then his body followed, splitting from neck to groin, the wound already cauterised by the holy might of the Sword of the Archangel. Mariella took a deep breath and glanced at Gabriel, who sheathed his sword and turned to her, taking her in his arms and holding her tightly for a moment.   
  
She leant back and kissed him, and they held one another close until Gabriel turned his head, feeling something else close by. The sound of clapping came to them, and the two holy warriors whirled, staring at the blonde woman in the doorway. Her thick curls cascaded down her naked body, past lavender eyes that laughed at the two warriors. She held her hands wide, and bowed to them.  
  
"Ah, well this looks like the beginning of a joke, doesn't it? A nun, a monk and a bloodwolf walk into a bedroom..." Mariella took a deep breath and split from Gabriel as they spread out, to come at the creature from both sides. Katherine bared her teeth. "No sense of humour? Ah. Too much the consummate killers, then." Katherine nodded to herself and spread her hands wide, beginning her change.   
  
"Alright, let's see what you've got."  
  
**********  
  
"You look like shit, Jack." Montoya moved closer to his old partner and squatted down in front of him. He looked at his left wrist and tapped it twice as though pointing out the time. "You're a little late, partner. You told me I had two days, not two decades. You getting' soft in your old age?" Jack didn't answer as Montoya reached out and slapped his cheek, then stood up and walked away.   
  
"Two days, Jack. That's what you gave me. I'd spent my entire life up until then as a Slayer, and then I was a fuckin' sucker, man. And you gave me two days. I waited. You didn't come." Montoya's dark eyes were intense, accusing as they stared at Jack in the shadows of the torchlight. "I thought, Jack'll finish me off, make it so I don't have to be this fuckin' thing for all of fuckin' eternity. But you didn't come." Montoya shook his head.  
  
"Fuckin' Jack Crowe. Katrina was in the back of the truck, and neither of us wanted it, but it consumed us, Jack. There was nothing we could do. She'd already bitten me, drank me nearly dry, but I hadn't drunk. I was waiting, Jack, waiting for you to save me. And you didn't fuckin' come. You're a fuckin' asshole, Jack." Montoya leered down at Jack and cocked his head, listening.  
  
"Your padre wasn't much of a slayer after all, huh Jack? He's dead, you know. He wasn't my first. I haven't killed in a while except to eat. It's different, pal. Everything's different." His expression turned suddenly savage, and he hit Jack with a clubbing blow to the side of the head, and Jack reeled back as his vision blurred. Montoya watched him stumble and clenched both fists, feeling the bones crack and settle.

"I lasted for three fuckin' days, Jack. Katrina just about gave up on me. She fully accepted it, Jack, bitten by that fuckin' monster, he was pourin' through her, like she was some kinda conduit or somethin'. And after three fuckin' days of waiting for you to show up, I couldn't stand it anymore. And I killed a kid. He might've been fuckin' thirteen, or fourteen, I dunno." Jack sighed and wiped the blood from his mouth.  
  
"I'm sorry, Montoya, okay, I just... my whole fuckin' team was gone, alright? I'd gotten almost every member of my fuckin' team taken out, and..." Montoya whirled again and hit Jack with another clubbed blow, sprawling him down the floor across Adam's body. Montoya gave a low growl and began to change. Jack felt his hands settle on something cold and hard that wasn't stone, and his fingers gripped the wooden stock gratefully.  
  
"What happened to Katrina?" Montoya laughed, his voice deepening as he changed into his bloodwolf form. Jack stood slowly, straightening but keeping his hands by his body.   
  
"The whore?" Montoya asked mockingly. "As you so nicely called her? It's Katherine now. She took up her old habits, but this time, it kept us fed on a nightly basis. You know, Jack, if you eat on a regular, full basis, that you don't lose so much of your humanity. That's what makes it hard, Jack. To keep feeling normal, you've got to feed, which in turn fucks you up more."  
  
"I lost myself in the Thirst, then. You kill enough, and you forget what its like not being a monster. And that's when you start to change, Jack. You get paler, your eyes change, but its more than that. Your soul goes, Jack, and you know, because its gone. Now here's the fucked up thing about all this. Katrina was changed into one of these things, then she came looking for me."  
  
Montoya cocked his head, listening to something far off, and a strange expression came across his wolven features. Jack shifted his grip on Adam's shotgun and wondered if he'd be able to get Montoya to keep talking. "She's upstairs, isn't she? She's the one in charge here. Where's the other two? Montoya, c'mon man, talk to me, she's the big bitch here, right?" Montoya looked back at him and nodded.  
  
"When you're a sucker, Jack, you can't stop feeding. You lose who you are because if you remembered who you were, and what you had to do every fuckin' day, you'd go insane. Well I was lost, Jack. I was gone. And then I was brought back. When they change you, you turn human just long enough to remember what it was like to have a soul before it's ripped out of you again, and then you're gone fuckin' even more."  
  
"The world becomes about fucking, and killing, and destroying, and all the things that good Christian souls should never do. Every fuckin' one of us is the fuckin' Antrichrist Jack." Montoya opened his mouth wide and leapt forward, plunging his teeth into Jack's shoulder. Jack fell back in surprise and Montoya ripped his teeth out, forcing Jack to scream in pain. "And now it's time for you to feel everything you brought to me, Jack."  
  
Jack flipped the shotgun up, and shoved it deep into Montoya's throat. Montoya's eyes went wide and Jack pulled the trigger, exploding his former partner's brains out across the steps behind them. The slayer sighed as he shifted his jacket, seeing the wound already healing slowly as the virus began to bleed into his system. He looked back at the corpse of Montoya. "Via con Dios...slayer."  
  
********  
  
Katherine flinched her muscles and Mariella leapt into the feint. Gabriel jumped forwards in her shadow, using her body to block his attack. Katherine slammed a fist into Mariella's side, and the Magdelena cried out in pain as she hit the wall and slumped down. Gabriel slashed upwards with his sword, opening up the bloodwolf's jaw and eye. Black lines began to move across, leaking the rose oil poison into her veins.   
  
Katherine reached a hand to her eye and howled as Gabriel spun around and kicked, blasting her back out into the living room, through one of the posts on the bed. Katherine roared in rage and sprinted up, only to smash into Mariella's sword as the Magdelena darted around the corner. She tumbled and fell, but kicked out as Gabriel went to slice through her stomach with his sword. Gabriel flew backwards and grunted as his strengthened form crushed the ancient stone wall.  
  
Mariella danced around to Katherine's side, dodging the prone bloodwolf's kicks and claws and stabbing down and in with her Spear. Katherine howled in pain as Mariella impaled her shoulder, then jerked her body forwards and grabbed Mariella's throat. A white-hot flame ball barrelled into the huge bloodwolf, and she howled and dropped the woman in her grip as the Magdelena yanked her Spear free.  
  
The bloodwolf staggered back, staring at the charred flesh of her shoulder, which wasn't healing like other wounds did. She slunk back away from Gabriel, who was staring at her through the bright blue eyes, which had begun to smoke again. He slowly drew his sword up in front of him and Katherine glanced back at Mariella, who held her spear up to her shoulder, ready to throw. Katherine staggered up to her feet, and glared at the two of them with one good eye.   
  
Gabriel and Mariella began to walk forwards, and Gabriel leant down, throwing a fireball up into the archway, and sending it crumbling down, blocking the only exit. Mariella closed her eyes and took deep breaths, feeling herself calm and peaceful as Gabriel's sword exploded into blue angelfire. She cast her Spear as Gabriel threw his sword, impaling the creature through it's mouth and the heart, made vulnerable by Gabriel's previous fireball.  
  
Katherine shrieked in horror as she burst back out the window, thrown off her feet by the force of the two weapons slamming into her body. She sailed almost gracefully out the protective window, and exploded into orange fire, though Gabriel's sword still burnt blue, and Mariella's Spear glowed bright white. She was howling in pain as she hit the ground, the two weapons pinning her to the earth beneath her.  
  
She continued to scream as she burnt away in the sunshine, the sound finally fading as her vocal cords burnt, shrivelling like dried leaves in a brushfire. Mariella leant against the wall and touched her throat tenderly, feeling the bruised flesh with her fingertips. Her breathing was ragged and Gabriel shrugged his shoulder forward with a loud crack as his ribs settled back into place.   
  
He gritted his teeth and breathed shallowly for a few moments, until the pressures in his chest eased as his body healed quickly. Mariella tilted her head up to Gabriel, showing him her neck. "Any wounds?" Gabriel came close to her and held her neck, inspecting it, then took a deep breath and kissed her forehead as his eyes finally cleared, back to their normal deep blue.   
  
"All clean." She nodded and held out her hand, concentrating. Far below, the Spear shuddered in the smoking pieces of burnt bloodwolf and jerked itself free, returning to her silent call. Gabriel watched her do it then concentrated, feeling the sword on the ground. The sword didn't move, but instead burst into flames and disappeared as flames erupted along Gabriel's back, as the sword coalesced in it's scabbard.  
  
They stood there next to one another, too exhausted to move for a while as they simply took in the warmth of the sun, until a faint shout reached them through the wall of rubble. "Gabe? Mariella?" Gabriel smiled tiredly and Mariella moved to the rocks and stones scattered along the floor, blocking the doorway.   
  
"Jack? Stand back, away from the stones!" She looked back at Gabriel, who held up his hands and reached out to the rocks. Blue flames spread along the stones and began to melt them, and Mariella heard Jack swear as he moved out the way of the molten rocks.  
  
"Jesus, kid, take it easy next time, would ya?" Gabriel didn't answer as he stared at Jack, and the old slayer shrugged, his expression mournful. "Yeah kid." Mariella looked between them and then shook her head, not understanding. Jack lifted his Jacket off and threw it to her, showing the bite marks in his black t-shirt. They'd already healed, but the blood still covered his arm.  
  
Mariella sighed and bit her lip, her expression pained as she moved to him and put her arms around him. "Oh, Jack." They didn't say anymore, and then Jack moved past her to the shattered window, letting in the midday sun.   
  
"Fifteen years, you know, I guess I'd gotten a bit rusty. Nobody would have ever gotten the drop on me back in the day." Gabriel nodded and stood beside him, staring at the sun. "Padre's dead," Jack whispered softly, and Mariella felt her eyes getting hot and prickly as tears tried to come. "So's the whole team, again. These creatures..." He shook his head, turning to Gabriel. "I'm infected."  
  
"This creature was uh, experimenting. On the way up, we found a whole lab set up, with bloodwolves in various stages of development. Maybe there's something down there to tell us how to stop it?" Jack shook his head at Gabriel's optimism and sank down to his knees, his eyes closed as he basked in the sunlight.   
  
"Nah." He gave a slight chuckle. "What other way is a slayer supposed to go out? Rule Number 1, kid. If you partner is bitten, never, ever, let him live. I broke that one. And now it's come back to break me." He looked up and his eyes locked onto the hilt of Gabriel's sword. "You do it, kid. I'm no samurai, but... you do it. Don't let me turn into one of those fuckers."  
  
Gabriel looked up at Mariella, his expression horrified, but she nodded, her features turning to stone. Her eyes were soft and hurt, though, hiding the pain behind her stony façade. Gabriel drew his sword as Jack looked up at him. "Via Con Dios, my friend." Gabriel felt tears blurring his eyes as he steeled himself and stabbed down, burying his sword through Jack's back and down into his heart.  
  
"Via Con Dios, slayer." The light left Jack's eyes and he slumped down to the ground as Gabriel put his hand on his friend's shoulder and gasped a breath. Mariella came up to him and gently cradled his head in her arms and shushed him as he struggled against the pain. After a while, the storm of weeping passed, and Gabriel raised his head, his blue eyes clear. "We should go."  
  
Mariella sighed and nodded slowly, reaching down and closing Jack's eyes. Gabriel picked up his body and leapt out the window, landing in a strong crouch on the grass at the front of the ornate door. Mariella landed gracefully beside him and they began to walk out towards the hills near the town. "He shouldn't be left there." Mariella nodded and then turned and ran back into the Castle. After several moments, she came back, carrying Adam's body.  
  
"Neither of them should be." Gabriel smiled softly in agreement and the two of them moved out into the green, rolling hills. They knelt down, far away from prying eyes and began to dig, Mariella using her hands and her Spear, and Gabriel using his hands and Sword.  
  
The sun was going down by the time they finished, and Mariella began to pray over the unmarked graves. Gabriel knelt down beside her and thought about how much his life had changed in the last few weeks. He had met and fallen in love with a mysterious warrior woman of the church, battled vampires, and werewolves, and hybrid creatures of the two.   
  
He had met legendary slayers and holy warriors, unholy demons with teeth and fur and claws. And he had discovered why he was so different. He had been shown why his whole life he had been out of place, and who he really was, the son of an Archangel. It all seemed too unreal. But it was very real. He only had to reach inside of himself to find that righteous, burning fire and know that it was real.  
  
Gabriel watched the sun sinking over the horizon and began to feel something was very wrong. Mariella finished her prayers and Gabriel looked at her. Something she'd said, or... when they were in that place outside of time, where they'd made his Sword. "Two wolves." Mariella looked up and stared at him. "Two wolves, you said. There's another one." Mariella's eyes went wide, and she whirled quickly, grabbing her spear as harsh laughter began to sound.  
  
"Well, well, well, what have we here?" Gabriel pivoted around and drew his Sword in a single motion. Two massive bloodwolves, bigger than he'd ever seen, were standing on the edge of the hill in the wavering dusk light, covered in dirt and dust. Further down the hill, two shallow graves had been ripped open from underneath, where the creatures had buried themselves.   
  
The slightly larger one was over nine feet tall, and jet black. His eyes burnt red, almost glowing in the low light. He was filled out in pure muscle, and his claws were long and black. He radiated a fear-inspiring presence. The female beside him was slighter of build, but still had that feared presence, and Gabriel gripped his Sword tighter as she leered at Mariella.   
  
The Magdelena gripped her Spear in front of her and crouched back, ready to attack or defend. The larger bloodwolf shook his great head and waved a hand at them. "Easy, now, easy now. Just relax. We're here to talk." Mariella stepped up beside Gabriel, but neither of them lowered their weapons. "I'm am Markus Stormbridge, and this is my Queen, Bethany Della Nostrum." The female ducked her head slightly in a mockery of a bow, and Gabriel took a breath.  
  
"You'll find nothing welcoming about us tonight." Markus scoffed and ran a finger down his jaw idly, scratching himself.  
  
"No respect for a king and queen, meat? How do you expect to survive if you..." He trailed off as he stared at them, then gave a low growl and a sniff. "You are not human." Gabriel gave a leering grin and brandished his sword again. Markus snarled. "They're the hunters, Bethany!" Bethany gave a growl and leapt forward, past Gabriel and into Mariella. They tumbled back as Gabriel whipped his sword up, catching Markus on the chin.  
  
Markus was much, much quicker than the other bloodwolves, and as he slashed Gabriel's Sword away, he jerked his body in, slamming his elbow into Gabriel's ribs. He staggered back, clutching at his chest, and feeling the bloody wound. He coughed and his blood hit the hilt of his sword as he wiped his mouth. Markus's lip twitched in amusement, and he came in again. Gabriel swung his sword around like a pendulum, stabbing the bloodwolf in the neck with the crosspiece.  
  
Markus snarled at him and punched him down low, again slamming into his ribs. Gabriel felt himself flying, and flung his legs over his head, trying to land on his feet. He sailed over Mariella and Bethany, who were in the midst of grappling over the Spear. Mariella swung back with all her might and kicked, hitting Bethany right in the jaw with a satisfying crack of bone.   
  
Bethany roared and let go of the Spear, and Mariella stumbled back. Bethany leant forwards, sinking her teeth far into the Magdelena's upraised forearm, and drew herself up to her full height and roared again as Mariella stabbed the Spear into her belly with all her might. Bethany's roar choked off, and she convulsed over the Spear as the arrowed head burst out behind her. She stared at Mariella in shock and grabbed hold of the Spear tightly in one paw and twisted on it, trying to see behind her as Markus gave out a terrifyingly human scream of hatred.  
  
The Spear's tip was visible through the unborn monster's eye, but the rest of it was buried in the creature's head. The small carcass was humanoid in shape, but barely formed. Bethany turned slowly back to Mariella, her eyes burning in red hatred, and Mariella gasped and stepped back, pulling the Spear with her.   
  
Markus gave a roar behind Bethany, and Gabriel called to Mariella from behind her. She knelt down and braced herself, and he used her shoulder to push himself off in a giant leap. Bethany's eyes opened wide and she opened her mouth to scream, but the scything blade cut the top of her head clean off, separating her top and lower jaws and everything above.   
  
She collapsed onto the ground as Markus roared and charged in, punching his fist into the hole in Gabriel's chest. Gabriel tensed and gritted his teeth as the Spear of Destiny came shooting overhead, blasting through Markus's neck and staggering him back. His free hand gripped the bloody mess of his throat, and his red eyes opened wide.   
  
With the last of his strength, Gabriel gripped the handle in both hands and stabbed across, impaling the bloodwolf Packmaster's heart with the Sword of the Archangel. Markus twitched and blinked in surprise and stared down at his hand, still imbedded in Gabriel's chest, straight through. The blue light in Gabriel's eyes began to fade, and he let go of the Sword as he sank down and pulled Markus's arm back through his chest. He vomited blood and wiped his mouth, then felt himself slowly beginning to heal.  
  
The healing stopped after a while, and he stared down at his chest. Black lines spread along his veins as the bloodwolf venom seeped into his system, slowly trying to change him. He crawled to Mariella and laid down at her side. She wept as she tried to call to the Spear, but it wouldn't come. She coughed and stared at him, and he smiled, his mouth covered in his own blood.   
  
They sank down into the darkness and held one another as the silence of the night closed in around them. Black lines began to spread along Mariellla's arm, and she began to sob as she held Gabriel close to her.  
  
********  
  
Gabriel opened his eyes slowly, feeling the stickiness of blood covering his face. The sun was setting, and it's brightness stung his eyes. He rolled over and groaned, and a small chuckle came from above him. He twisted and peered out from under a shading hand at the figure. The man appeared to be middle aged. His long blond hair fell down his neck in long, silky strands. Gabriel looked for Mariella, but she was still asleep beside him.  
  
"We need ta talk, lad. An' we've little time." His voice was lighter than his appearance, with a strong Irish tilt to it. Gabriel shook his head again and looked at his chest, but the wound was gone. Gone too were the black veins. "I'm Michael." Gabriel frowned and tried to stand, but he was too weak.  
  
"And I'm..."  
  
"Gabriel, yeah, I know, I was a friend to your da." Gabriel opened his eyes fully and stared at the man, who shrugged and stood up, pulling him up with him. "There's a few t'ings what need explainin', and certain interested parties t'ought that I'd be the one f'r 'em." Gabriel turned back to Mariella, but she remained asleep.  
  
"Why?" Michael shrugged and hit him lightly on the chest.  
  
"I'm a nephalym, jus' like you. An' eh, well, suffice it t'say that we're no tha' different. Now you've don' somethin' that no'ne in history o' the world before' ye's don'. You've gon' an let an angelic avatar get infe'cted. Turns out the power's 't be don' rightly know what'n the hell t'do wit' you two now."  
  
Gabriel looked at Michael and shrugged. "Why don't you just leave us be?" Michael gave him a wide grin.   
  
"Now where'd the fun be in that?" Gabriel looked down at Mariella and didn't answer, and Michael reached out and laid his hand on his shoulder. "But at least in a fashion, that's what they'v don'." Gabriel looked back at him. "You two've mixed Magdelene blood, angelic blood, human blood and now these ruddy bloodwolves int' the mix."  
  
"You're about as balanced as ye can get. So the High Lord himself, and the Underlord himself both wanna le' ya be, t'see what be'comes o'ya. So there ya hav'it. You're on your own. But jus' be warn'ed, boyo..." Michael pointed past them to the light orb of the mood behind the fast moving clouds. "Whoever don' win, they'll sure as shite be after ya." Gabriel scoffed and turned back, but Michael was gone. The clouds parted and the moonlight shone through, and Gabriel felt himself strengthening.

Mariella stirred and stretched, then looked down at her arm and up at Gabriel. "What happened? I feel..." The moonlight made their skin tingle, and Gabriel felt his heart beating rapidly. Mariella's eyes suddenly burnt red, and she moved to him, pulling him towards her in a violent passion.  
  
They kissed, hard and hot, their tongues fighting one another for tastes. Mariella ripped his pants down, her slim fingers lifting him out of his crotch and she knelt down, taking him in her mouth. Gabriel gasped and gripped her hair, feeling her mouth envelope him, taking him into her. The warmth of her mouth and hands made him harder, feeling the blood flow down to his cock.  
  
She rubbed his balls lightly as she sucked him, swallowing his cock and feeling him thrusting into her. Mariella smiled around his cock as Gabriel groaned and shuddered, struggling against her. There was a sudden saltiness in her mouth and she leant back, squeezing the head of his cock. Gabriel snarled and thrust into her grip, but her iron hand squeezed harder, and she worked her tongue around her lips, taking his precum into her mouth.  
  
Gabriel leant down and shoved her back onto the ground, pulling her pants down over her hips. He leant down, driving his tongue inside of her. Mariella gasped, her eyes open wide as Gabriel worshipped her center. She moaned highly and shuddered as he scrapped his teeth over her clit, forcing her to buck her hips violently. He slid his tongue into her against and worked his mouth over her clit, sucking it into his mouth against and tickling it with the tip of his tongue.  
  
Mariella's eyes were wide open as she felt him working his mouth against her, and her hips bucked as her mouth worked soundlessly. Her entire body collapsed against him as she burst into his mouth, feeling her strength flow out. Gabriel raised his head as she twisted, rolling over and offering her rear to him. "More."  
  
He slid up her body and kissed her, his mouth wet with her taste as she arched up against him, begging silently. Her legs spread around his hips as he slid inside of her and Mariella sighed happily. Gabriel began fucking his cock into her, feeling her humming in time to his thrusts. Mariella pulled her breasts up to her mouth and licked her nipples, her expression fixed and staring, lost in the lust of the feelings racing through her.  
  
Gabriel began to pant and Mariella exploded against him, gushing her cum out onto his thrusting balls with a high pitched scream. Gabriel pulled out and knelt up over her, but Mariella again grabbed his cock and squeezed, shaking her head. She brought her hand up to her mouth, licking off his cum and staring at him.   
  
She rolled over and arched up, spreading her cheeks wide to him and looking back over her soft shoulder, face buried against the grass. "Take me hard." Gabriel leant down and sucked her pussy, rubbing her juices over her ass and then moving up and to her rear. Her pressed his cock against her asshole and pushed, driving himself inside of her.   
  
Mariella moaned and nodded as he thrust into her, squeezing and smiling as he shook over and inside her. Gabriel sighed and breathed raggedly and grabbed at Mariella's hips and shook, and the luxiourious hair shone darkly. "I'm... I'm going to..." She nodded and squeezed him inside of her.  
  
"Come in me! FUCKING COME IN ME!" Gabriel couldn't contain it and he began to thrust, feeling her tight heat and tore his cock out of her ass and plunged it back into her pussy, feeling the wetness envelope him. His breath and body steamed in the night air, and he began to grunt.   
  
Gabriel's entire form tensed and every muscle screamed as his body pulsed, feeilng himself bursting inside of Mariella. His breath was ragged against her ear, his face buried in her hair, her dark strands across his face. The sweat beaded on his forehead and her raven locks clung to his forehead. Their breathing slowed down as the night air cooled their bodies, steam still pouring off them. They stayed together for several heartbeats until Mariella took a deep breath.  
  
"We're going to Hell, aren't we?" Gabriel shook his head against hers and moved out of her. Mariella gave a low moan and a sigh, and pulled her pants back up over her rear. Gabriel pulled his own pants up as Mariella stared at his damp cock as he pushed it back into his pants.  
  
"No. We're neutral. We're whatever we want to be, as close to human as we could ever be. What we end up as, is up to us." There was a sudden howl on the wind from the north, and both warriors bristled. Gabriel handed Mariella Adam's shotgun to add to her arsenal of Jack's pistols, bullets and machete. The Spear of Destiny was gone, taken by Michael to be given to the next Magdelena.   
  
"We're still hunters." Gabriel nodded as Mariella checked both chambers of her pistols and swung the shotgun over her shoulder. "I love you, Gabe."  
  
He smiled as they began to run north, towards the sound of the werewolves. "And I you." Clouds suddenly covered the moon, plunging the countryside into darkness. Gabriel's eyes began to glow blue as Mariella's began to glow red. The two hunters disappeared into the night, together.  
  
The End.


End file.
